ASEAN Chairman Cambodia renewed its push for greater integration within the regional body on Tuesday with its prime minister insisting that stronger financial cooperation was needed to promote economic growth to tackle global issues.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told leaders of the member countries at the 20th ASEAN Summit opening ceremony that many challenges still remain for the bloc to tackle.

The main agenda is to ensure that Southeast Asia is on track to meet an ambitious goal of transforming in three years into a European Union-like community. This includes moving towards a single market and production base, where people and goods can travel seamlessly.

However, Hun Sen insisted that more concentration of political will is needed to ensure legislation for migrant workers, loosen trade barriers, develop infrastructure and narrow economic growth gaps in the 600 million strong population of ASEAN.

Outlining the global challenges of high oil prices, the Eurozone debt crisis and lackluster recovery of the U.S., the prime minister emphasized on the need to collectively deal with the challenges to economic growth.

"The ASEAN must strengthen mechanisms for financial stability within the region. The Chiang Mai Initiative is essential for this role and we call for the current fund of 120 billion U.S. dollars to be doubled to 240 billion U.S. dollars as soon as possible," he said.

To narrow the development gap, Hun Sen stressed that selected projects from the ASEAN Integration Plan must be implemented under a common flag. He also added that the proposals outlined in his speech will be included in the "Phnom Penh Agenda" for continued deliberations at later summits.