‘Asean is important’


Prof Sachs: While the Asean region has been broadly successful with economic development, it is now time to step up environmental protection to further the UN SDGs’ progress. — MUHAMAD SHAHRIL ROSLI/The Star

Malaysia has a big mission as Asean chair to unite all member states and speak with one voice, especially for sustainable development in the region, says acclaimed economist Prof Jeffrey D. Sachs.

IN the world of sustainable development, Prof Jeffrey D Sachs is the pre-eminent expert.

A world-renowned economics professor at Columbia University, Sachs is the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network president and an advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, among others.

Having been consistently recognised as one of the most important living economists, Sachs has advised over a hundred countries on economic policies and sustainable development.

Last week, Sachs brought his expertise to Malaysia’s Asean Workshop on Sustainable Development 2025, giving his perspectives on this region’s path towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also made time to meet with Sachs while the economist was in Malaysia, where they discussed matters related to sustainable development, green energy and the role that Malaysia can play as Asean chair.

Speaking to Sunday Star, Sachs shares his thoughts on these issues.

> How do you assess the current progress of Asean countries in achieving the SDGs, especially Malaysia?

This is a success region, broadly. There’s fast economic growth, there’s nearing the end of poverty almost everywhere, there’s technological advancement, there’s improving infrastructure.

So broadly speaking, this is a region that has been successful now for 40 years in economic development.

The challenges are to combine the economic development with environmental sustainability, and of course, those are two major categories. One is on the energy transformation, which is underway but needs to go faster, and the other is the protection of the biodiversity, the marine environments, all the many ecosystems and the unique flora and fauna of this region.

A lot more needs to be done on that. So this region where economic progress is occurring, now it needs to be combined with a stepped-up protection of the natural environment.

And I should add that in addition to the energy transformation and protecting biodiversity, we can see very clearly that every part of the world needs to understand how to protect against more and more climate dangers.

Clearly, Los Angeles was not thinking ahead of the risks, but Los Angeles is only one of countless examples around the world of droughts, floods, forest fires, and so on.

Asean needs to do a very, very thorough understanding of what lies ahead in heat waves, in storms, in sea level change, and in how those factors, floods and droughts and so forth, are going to impact society.

So this is the big agenda.

In order to succeed, the main thing Asean needs to do, in my view, is to become an even stronger integration; more planning, more joint action, more interconnected investments, and more international diplomacy at the Asean level, with the United States or with the European Union or with the Gulf States or with Africa or with China and so forth at an Asean level.

Stronger regional integration is key, and that I think is the right theme for Malaysia’s chairmanship of Asean this year.

> What do you mean by stronger regional integration?

Asean needs an energy system that is an Asean-wide energy system, meaning that all of the countries would be interconnected, that the power would be generated anywhere and available anywhere, that a lot more investment would be made in the physical interconnectivity, that there would be a market for power that is Asean-wide, and that this would be planned for the 10 countries in a unified way rather than Malaysia having its plan, Indonesia having its plan, and then saying, oh, by the way, we’ll sell you a little bit of this here, we’ll sell you a little bit of that there.

Of course, this idea has been talked about for 20 years.

There is an Asean power grid. There is an Asean energy planning mechanism. But almost all of the power generation stays within each country right now.

The amount of trade exists, but it’s small. It’s not viewed or planned as one system.

It’s not financed as one system and this is one thing that I would like to see at this year’s summit which is that the leaders say we will have a joint energy system, we’ll move together on this, we’ll invest together on this, we’ll plan together on this, we’ll operate together on this.

> As Malaysia is the Asean chair this year, what unique opportunities does this position offer in terms of advancing the SDGs in this region?

I think Asean can make a big advance in its institutional, political, diplomatic, investment and planning roles because Malaysia is such a capable country within the region. It’s got very good relations all through the region.

It’s got a lot of trust and the time is ripe to say let’s make a big move forward, especially with Donald Trump (in the White House), with all the technological advances; AI and robotics, 5G, 5.5G, fourth-generation nuclear, China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

If you add up the whole geopolitical and, by the way, all of the European actions and the supply chain issues and so forth, this is really the time to say we better get our act together on the global stage, reflecting the fact that we are 700 million people.

This is a very important market.

This is a very important investment destination.

This is geopolitically an important region.

We will speak with one voice so that we can negotiate properly with the rest of the world and we can plan properly within the region.

> Economic growth and sustainability often appear to be at odds. How can Malaysia balance these priorities while still leading Asean in pursuit of the SDGs?

I think what we’re seeing is, actually, investing in green digital technologies.

Sustainable technology is a major competitive advantage now. Look at China’s success over the last 10 years. China became the world’s low-cost producer of just about everything in the green digital world.

Electric vehicles, battery supply chain, fourth-generation nuclear, long-distance power transmission, solar energy, wind energy, 5.5G tech, fast rail, hydrogen economy, hydrogen shipping and so on.

It’s very impressive, by the way.

China is a great example that there is no need to trade off economic development for environmental protection by investing in green industries such as electric vehicles and renewable energy like solar, says UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network President Prof Jeffrey D Sachs — Gilles Sabrié/The New York TimesChina is a great example that there is no need to trade off economic development for environmental protection by investing in green industries such as electric vehicles and renewable energy like solar, says UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network President Prof Jeffrey D Sachs — Gilles Sabrié/The New York Times

China took a decision a decade ago (saying): “We want to be at the forefront of these technologies”.

It planned and because of this rather incredible industrial base that China has, now it really is the world’s low-cost providers.

That is servicing China very well in long-term growth, because China’s exports, even with the US protectionism, are rising very rapidly.

The new data that just came out showed a very big increase in China’s global exports because China is producing things that the world wants.

Who is being protectionist and saying, no, no, don’t come to our market? That’s the US and Europe because they can’t compete with China on this.

And in this sense, China’s not making a trade-off between green and growth.

China’s making a green-based growth. And I think that if Asean and China are closely integrated in supply chains, in technology, in physical connectivity, in digital and power, this will mean that this kind of green-based growth will be the natural kind of growth for the Asean countries as well.

I would not want to be trying to grow the economy based on internal combustion engines, for example. There’s no future in it. I’d much rather be trying to grow the economy based on robotics, AI, 5.5G, electric vehicles, and so on.

So get into the forefront of the technologies that the world needs over the next 30 years and that will be the source of continued growth.

> How can Malaysia’s experience and strategies in sustainable development be scaled up and replicated across Asean?

I think that Malaysia’s success, broadly speaking, has been educational advancement, increased excellence in science and technology, and integration of the Malaysian economy into regional and global supply chains, with the support of infrastructure to make that possible.

That’s the basic idea. So this is good development practice, I would say.

It is planning, it is a balanced investment in critical areas, including human capital, which is education and health, including physical infrastructure and business development and we want to add natural capital into that mix, that it’s doing all of this while protecting the natural environment.

That requires planning. It requires good fiscal management. It requires good economic diplomacy, for example, with China, which I think is extremely positive and important.

These lessons are general lessons that can apply across the Asean region.

So I would say that what is needed is to take those experiences – the planning mechanism, the financing mechanism, the physical interconnections and infrastructure – and put that at an Asean scale. And then see whether there are things missing.

One idea that I’m wanting to explore is whether there should be an Asean Development Bank, for example. There’s an Asian Development Bank and we learned there is an Asean infrastructure fund managed by the bank, but it’s small.

Maybe there should be an Asean Development Bank alongside (the Asian Development Bank) as a new institution that can help to add financing for some of these very big projects ahead.

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