This Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Caucus will aid in the push for common legislative initiatives as Asean strives to stay attractive to investors.

The caucus, which has its first meeting next year in Malaysia, will also monitor programmes that AIPA has agreed to implement, such as mitigating rising food prices in member countries.

But as countries are at different levels of development, they are in no hurry to establish an Asean Parliament, Speaker of the Singapore Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi, who is AIPA's president, said.

He was speaking on Friday at the end of AIPA's annual meeting this week, which was attended by 300 MPs and representatives from Asean countries.

Issues they discussed included poverty eradication, inter-racial and inter-religious dialogue, energy security and environmental sustainability.

On food prices, the MPs urged Asean governments in a joint statement to 'take steps to promote reasonable pricing and prevent profiteering in times of crisis'.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.