Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) started Sunday their annual meeting in which they strive to redouble efforts toward realizing regional integration by 2015, Japanese news agency "Kyodo" reported. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose country chairs the 10-member grouping this year, called for his ASEAN counterparts to find appropriate solutions to further accelerate the integration pace of ASEAN Community building and to improve equitable growth. Realizing the ASEAN Community by 2015 should remain the top priority, Hun Sen suggested. ASEAN should find appropriate ways and means to overcome protectionism in the trade in goods and services in the region, he added. The Cambodian leader also noted that the forthcoming official launch of negotiations for a region-wide free-trade agreement among regional economies -- the 10 ASEAN members, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India -- would transform the region into an integrated market of over 3 billion people.
