VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

ASEAN leaders held a meeting on the sidelines of the 2018 IMF-WB meeting on Thursday in Nusa Dua, Bali. In the meeting themed 'Achieving Sustainable Development Goals and Overcoming Development Gaps through Regional and Global Collaborative Action', various issues were discussed related to the commitment to strengthening cooperation, economic growth and sustainable development.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that ASEAN countries reaffirmed their strong commitment to multilateral and international cooperation. According to him, ASEAN countries remain firm in upholding an open multilateral trading system and have supported regional economic growth over the past few decades.

"We have an insightful discussion under the theme ‘Achieving Sustainable Development Goals and Overcoming Development Gaps Through Regional and Global Collaborative Action. We also reaffirm our strong commitment to multilateralism and international cooperation. ASEAN remains steadily fast in holding the open and roles based multilateral trading system which is underpinned the region economic growth over the past decades," PM Lee said.

In addition, PM Lee said ASEAN countries were committed to multiplying efforts in regional comprehensive economic cooperation. Related to this, PM Lee said that he hoped this partnership would achieve positive results by the end of 2018. However, PM Lee also realized the challenges the ASEAN is facing in achieving sustainable development. These challenges include economic restructuring, accelerating urbanization to an aging population. (VOI/Ndy/AHM)