Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will visit Malaysia from Friday (Nov 20) to Sunday for the 27th ASEAN Summit and related summits in Kuala Lumpur, the Prime Minister’s Office announced in a press release.

At the ASEAN Summit, the leaders of the Southeast Asian nations will discuss progress made towards achieving the ASEAN Community, and they will sign the declaration on the establishment of the community. The ASEAN Community will be launched on Dec 31, and its targets include the elimination of tariffs and the facilitation of free movement of goods, services, capital and skilled labour within the member states.

… “It’s a work-in-progress. The fact that by 2015 we say that we are now an ASEAN Community with the three pillars put in place. The agenda therefore is to ensure that having worked towards the establishment of the three communities, that the momentum is maintained and there should be more acceleration in the efforts to address these multiple efforts across the three communities,” said Associate Professor Mely Caballero-Anthony, head of the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.