The Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) is undergoing institutional reforms to make the grouping’s working processes more efficient and this issue was discussed by regional leaders during the recent summit in Malaysia.

The reforms include strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat, reducing the number of meetings and tweaking the modalities of summit meetings with dialogue partners.

The aim is to improve the efficiency of the grouping, which will go some way in helping to impose its centrality on the evolving regional architecture and counter criticisms that ASEAN is merely a talk shop.

… “Improving working methods and strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat may seem a small step for ASEAN to be a more efficient organisation but it is a necessary one in the right direction in order to ensure that decisions are followed up expeditiously and ASEAN is responsive to growing complexities and challenges,” Mr Ong Keng Yong, executive deputy chairman of Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and a former ASEAN secretary-general, told TODAY.