Despite the experience in EU, there is still scope for new international blocs as they could work faster than world organizations to implement quick measures for economic advancement, speakers said. They also focused on the potentials that the newly announced GCC federation could offer to the region.
The session entitled "Building Blocs: A Global Refocus on Models of Regional Cooperation" was moderated by Riz Khan, former CNN, television news reporter and interviewer.
Speakers said that countries hoping to progress need to go into blocs. Any country that hopes to stand-alone will be left out of the flow.
Challenges facing countries that have membership in different economic blocs as a result of differences or clashes about the procedures or rules in different blocs were also mentioned.
Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon, deputy secretary for Asia-Pacific, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Singapore, told a press conference that more unity among different countries in the same geographical area need to be encouraged. This will ease economic measures unlike international organizations that take time to implement rules.
According to Menon, it is not correct to neglect the economic changes in the West when thinking east. Asia has contributed in the revival of the European economies, he emphasized, adding: "The new strength is coming from the east."
The new GCC Federation has been created due to security concerns, said Abdulaziz Sager, chairman, Gulf Research Centre, Switzerland/Saudi Arabia. He elaborated while answering a question from the audience that four factors also contributed to the creation of the federation: The delay in implementing the previously agreed GCC rules, the economic differences among the GCC countries, and the strong ties linking families ruling these states.
The federation, he said, is still facing challenges that will be discussed and modified. "The concept of the federation need to be promoted among the GCC people."
Answering a question whether China, the world’s second biggest economy, is looking to become a world political power, he said: "China has domestic issues that it needs to tackle. It’s still not ready to take this step."
Speaking about China’s political importance, Ambassador Muhamad Noor Yacob, executive director APEC Secretariat, said: "China has always adopted a defensive role rather than an offensive one.
Yacob explained that some of the new products manufactured in the east had their ideas originating in the West. This proved that companies have adopted themselves to meeting the global requirement.
Later, addressing a press conference, Yacob said: "We are taking measures to make investment easy, knowing that investors are dragged to places that have high technologies, manpower at less costs, and easy for investors to get in.
As the EU policies came in for criticism in an earlier session, as they resulted in the economic crisis, John Bruton, EU ambassador to the United States and previously the Irish prime minister, said that EU continues to remain an example and model as an economic union.
Bruton added that the crisis has also been a result of the increasing number of retiring people, which in some EU countries could be 1 out of every 3 workers. "We accept these criticisms, there have been mistakes and we are working on a reform."