ASEAN Secretariat, 27 June 2008

The ASEAN Secretariat received a US$5 million grant from the Nippon Foundation today to fund the implementation of projects that would benefit the peoples of ASEAN. 

Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, and Mr Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, signed the Memorandum of Agreement on the grant this afternoon.

Under the Agreement, the Nippon Foundation will provide US$5 million over the next five years to fund projects that promote the well-being of the peoples of ASEAN. Among the possible areas of cooperation include maritime civilian safety, leprosy and human dignity, human resource networking and development for ASEAN integration, promotion of traditional and alternative medicine for primary healthcare, and promoting equal opportunities and capacity building for the disabled. The ASEAN Secretariat and Nippon Foundation will jointly identify, develop and implement the projects.

“This grant will be very useful to ASEAN as we transform ourselves into a people-oriented organisation, where peoples are at the heart of our activities. We would like to thank the Nippon Foundation for supporting us in this endeavour,” said Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN.

Earlier, the Nippon Foundation contributed US$100,000 to the ASEAN Cooperation Fund for Disaster Assistance.