This ASEAN Roundtable on Post Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) exercise is another milestone in our collective humanitarian effort to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which struck the southern part of Yangon and the Irrawady Delta on 2 May 2008. Your presence and participation at this Roundtable reflects the great humanitarian concern and commitment to help us get through this difficult challenge.

The purpose of the Roundtable is three-fold.  The first is to ensure that the international community has some inputs and participation in the process of compiling the assessment report.  The second is to ensure that there is a level of confidence in the objectivity, validity, and the way in which the report is being assembled. The third is to draw lessons from this experience by listening to the advice from the experts and parties involved in this effort, so that we understand what has been done, what should be done better, and what we are going to do in the future.

Today’s meeting was organised by the ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force, which was established at the special meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers on 19 May 2008 in Singapore. Under the chairmanship of Foreign Minister of Singapore, H.E. George Yeo, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers established a Task Force to engage the participation and support from the UN system, international institutions, ASEAN Dialogue Partners, donors from the international community, in the humanitarian effort. Yesterday, I had the privilege to report to Foreign Minister Yeo on our activities from the beginning, on what will happen today and tomorrow, and what we think will be the appropriate course of action from now on. 

We sent about 300 volunteers from ASEAN Member States, international organisations including the UN, World Bank, ADB and NGOs to the field across the southern part of Yangon and the Irrawady Delta. The areas were divided into 128 small squares, which were covered by the 300 team members. I am happy to report to you as Chair of the HTF that the access was unlimited and unfettered. In fact, there have been heartrending human stories of people affected by the disaster and these stories will be recorded and shared with all of you.

What we are doing today is to listen to the reports prepared by the PONJA team leaders. We also will hear observations, advice, and caution in the exercise that we are conducting because this will be the basis for further cooperation and collaboration in this humanitarian challenge that we are facing.

We want to ensure that the conditions and reservations expressed by the representatives of 51 countries, the international institutions, international NGOS who attended the ASEAN-UN International Pledging Conference on 25 May 2008 in Yangon - issues related to transparency, accessibility and the issue of reaching the affected people - are addressed through this community-based assessment.  We want to ensure that the element of human dignity is a major pillar of the report, and that this element is essential and incorporated into projects that will be recommended in the report.

We also want to make sure that the basic needs of the people are being met for their early recovery.  So, this is going to be the basis for medium- and long-term recovery.  I think the reconstruction, the major involvement and major contributions will come at a later stage.  For now, we will be looking, observing, commenting and contributing to this important document that we can consider as the roadmap for medium- to long-term recovery, rather than long- term reconstruction into the future.

Personally, what I have in mind is that in any area of disaster, what we should aim at, with the international community, aid agencies, international NGOs, ASEAN dialogue partners, and friendly governments – should be to build back better than before.  That should be our guiding principle to reflect our commitment as a regional organisation, taking the lead with the support of the UN system, the international financial institutions- the World Bank, the ADB, ASEAN dialogue partners, friendly governments – to build back better for both of us, for Myanmar and for ASEAN; because if we can get through this, Myanmar would be rebuilt, at least in the cyclone-struck area, turning the rice bowl of Myanmar into its traditional role as the rice bowl not only of Myanmar but of Southeast Asia and contributing to the relief of the food crisis that the world appears to be facing in the last months.  So, build back better for both of us, for Myanmar and ASEAN, will have shown that ASEAN is relevant, that we can contribute, that we can extend help with the help of friends and partners, and the international community, and ASEAN will come out of this stronger.

I think it would not be too far to expect that this exercise – humanitarian though it may be – the success, the experiences, the confidence that we have and will have, will be a strong basis for ASEAN to extend and expand this kind of engagement to other parts of ASEAN, to the newer members of ASEAN the vision that we have been hearing all along when we extended ASEAN to all ten countries the phrase “bridging the gap”. If we succeed here, the confidence, the modality, the way in which we accomplish this task together will build a very strong foundation for us to extend these kind of projects into other parts of ASEAN where there are other challenges awaiting us.

Thank you to all of you who have come here to join us, wanting us to succeed, supporting us financially, morally and psychologically, and hoping that we will succeed in this mission.

If we accomplish this task, a stronger ASEAN will be better for the region.  A stronger and prosperous, peaceful region will help the world by the comfort of knowing that there is one less region to worry about because ASEAN can take care of itself.

Thank you.