PETALING JAYA: Asean's main focus and interest are its economic fundamentals and boosting collaboration within the grouping, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said that, based on his exchanges with all the prime ministers and presidents within Asean, the main focus was to enhance intra-Asean trades.
"So, the economic fundamentals in terms of trade and investments, to me, is important, and the way we negotiate with other countries or regions," he said during a special one-on-one exclusive dialogue with forum leadership entitled ''A Conversation with Anwar Ibrahim'' moderated by WEF founder and chairman of the board of trustees Prof Klaus Schwab in Davos on Wednesday (Jan 21).
Anwar was asked to share his vision of Asean and whether the group would be modelled after the European Union (EU), which has a common currency and internal market.
Anwar said that the matter has yet to be explored.
"Our advantage is to study the EU, its successes and limitations.
"We are not too concerned about the political setups (within Asean). We are more concerned about economic collaboration. Our primary interest is to focus on economic fundamentals.
"Whatever it takes, whether in terms of digitalisation, AI, energy transition, investments, trades, that has always been the focus," added Anwar.
Anwar is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, as well as a business meeting with French energy company TotalEnergies.
The meeting with Schoof in this Swiss alpine town concludes his back-to-back working visits to four countries, which kicked off with the United Arab Emirates on Jan 12, followed by the United Kingdom (Jan 15) and Belgium (Jan 19).
