Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia is seeking the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs in promoting the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Community 2015 integration in the country.
Leonardia and City Administrator lawyer John Orola met with Hellen de la Vega, the Philippine director-general for Asean, at the DFA headquarters in Manila on Friday.
He asked the DFA to conduct fora with other national government agencies to fully explain in detail the Asean integration.
In a release from the City Information Office, Leonardia said Bacolod must be aware of the impact of the integration on local business, trade and industry
“Bacolod City must align its development plans and goals with the opportunities and challenges that come with the Asean Community 2015, or the integration of the economies of Southeast Asia,” he said.
Leonardia added that Bacolod is the first local government unit (LGU) in the country to ask assistance from the DFA regarding the matter.
“We can no longer think of ourselves as simply a Philippine city, we must now think of Bacolod as a city of Southeast Asia, or even Asia, and align our goals with this,” he said.
Likewise, he said, Bacolod would be able to sell its natural and human resources on the Asean market.
Asean Community 2015 is composed of the economies of the member-states Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar.