Globalization is attracting the attention of all the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who agreed at the ASEAN-U.N. summit in Bangkok Saturday that the issue will dominate the debate of the next decade.

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said that in recent years, there have been many mergers between large multi-national corporations and large banks, which are part of the globalization process.

With the entry of these companies into domestic markets, social safety will become a major concern, he said.

If they give no importance to social safety, there could be backlash against globalization.

He also called for taking measures to ensure globalization does not create income gaps between nations and other negative impacts.

His view was shared by other ASEAN leaders, who hoped the 10th Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD X), which opened in Bangkok later in the day, would offer new ways of thinking to ensure that the process of globalization benefits all, developed and developing countries alike.

The ASEAN leaders also called on UNCTAD to initiate a new General System of Preference (GSP), saying many ASEAN countries had made achievements in development thanks to the old GSP.

The ASEAN countries were also concerned about the Mekong river basin development, as Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai proposed that the United Nations declare this decade a "decade for Mekong river basin development."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised the collective response by ASEAN to the Asian financial crisis.

Diversified as it is, ASEAN takes a common position on many issues on the environment, good governance and fighting against poverty.

Annan also wished ASEAN become an observer for the United Nations, as it is the only regional organization which does not have an observer's status for the U.N.

The inaugural ASEAN-U.N. summit was held hours prior to the opening of the UNCTAD X, which will last till February 19.