TOKYO, Japan – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday (December 13th) that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has vastly improved the region over the past few years, the Jakarta Globe reported.

"It has taken time and diplomacy for the countries in Southeast Asia to be grouped under one regional organisation like ASEAN. We are now committed to realising our goal of establishing an ASEAN Community in 2015," Yudhoyono said during a lecture on the side lines of his official visit to Tokyo to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Japanese-ASEAN co-operation.

The president expressed optimism that the region would grow more prosperous and developed in the future.

"The Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts that the combined GDP (gross domestic product) of countries in Asia will total $160 trillion by 2050, and that poor countries will cease to exist in Asia, including in Southeast Asia," Antara quoted him as saying.