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SINGAPORE: Ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to hammer out possible solutions to rising oil and food prices amid warnings they could threaten political stability, officials said.
The problem, if left unchecked, could pose a challenge to the region's long-term aim of evolving into a European Union-style community where goods and services are freely traded across the region by 2015, they said.
At meetings to begin Sunday night, the ministers were to discuss "the growing challenge posed by rising oil and food prices, which pose a serious challenge to our people's welfare as well as our countries' continued economic development," according to a draft joint communique obtained by AFP.
The ministers were expected to push for more concerted cooperation "to ensure the efficient functioning of market forces," as well as to come up with a longer-term solution to help its members become more independent agriculturally.
Foreign ministers from ASEAN countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are to meet for ministerial talks on Sunday, ahead of a regional security meeting with dialogue partners including the United States on Thursday.
Prices of basic commodities across the region, including the staple rice, have steeply risen amid a supply crunch coupled with surging world oil prices.
Rice-importing countries such as the Philippines have particularly felt the pressure, with near-daily street protests from the public demanding price controls which could potentially distort trade.
ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told reporters during a visit to Manila last week that trade and finance ministers from the region have separately been working on a food security plan.
"(The ministers) have deliberated on this, and how to make this relevant because of the oil price," he said, noting that stocks of rice remain sound at the moment.
"The panic gear is over and the (price of) rice has gone down," he stressed. "The issue of food security is being revisited, recalibrated and analysed."
- AFP/yb
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