A high-level  delegation led by H.E. Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng, Second Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Brunei Darussalam visited the United States from 10-14 June 2013 to further enhance trade and investment relations between the two sides. The delegation comprised of Economic Ministers from Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines; Vice Ministers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam; and senior officials from ASEAN Member States.

The delegation visited three cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco (Silicon Valley) and Washington DC. The delegation visited a number of multinational corporations (Fox Studios, Covidien, Mattel, Google) and held consultations with the private sector including venture capitalists. The delegation also met with top US government officials, including Ambassador Miriam Sapiro, Acting US Trade Representative; Mr. Cameron Kerry, Acting Secretary of Commerce; and Mr. Francisco Sanchez, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Affairs. The delegation further called on Mr. Chuck Reed, Mayor of San Jose and also Congressmen Mr. Devin Nunes at Capitol Hill. The delegation also visited the Port of Los Angeles, which served as the main gateway for trade between ASEAN and the United States.

H.E I Wayan Dipta, Deputy Minister for the Ministry of SME and Cooperatives of the Republic of Indonesia opened a two-day Workshop which was part of the ASEAN project on Strengthening Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Business and Technology Business Incubators (TBI) last week. The project is a follow-up to the Leaders’ mandate to enhance SME development through strengthening Business and Technology Incubators in the region. The project aims to deliberate on the different incubation models for adoption by Incubation Centers in ASEAN to provide effective and efficient support for entrepreneurship development.

The models derived from a Baseline study undertaken in several ASEAN Member States as well as in Japan to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the TBI Centres in the countries. The Deputy Minister also launched the ASEAN Business Incubator Network, an important platform to further collaborate and exchange information to encourage and support technopreneurship in the region.

Officials from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV) participated in a seminar on investment policy formulation held 12-14 June 2013. Countries were represented by a mix of officials from investment ministries and promotion agencies, finance ministries and tax departments, and chambers of commerce.

The training was conducted to strengthen the capacity within the civil service in CLMV countries to design, develop and implement sound investment policies –in-line with the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI). Training modules were designed based on the OECD’s Policy Framework for Investment (PFI), a tool that helps governments identify obstacles to investment in a coherent manner, formulate sound policies to remove obstacles to investment, and effectively implement and monitor policy reforms.

H.E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN, attended the Sixth Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) on 13-14 June 2013 in Bali, Indonesia, at the invitation of H.E. Marty Natalegawa, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Indonesia, Co-Chair of FEALAC for 2012-2013.

Throughout the Meeting, the Foreign Ministers of FEALAC countries deliberated on ways and means to enhance East Asia-Latin America cooperation in many areas, particularly promoting interconnectivity between the two regions, and jointly addressing global challenges such as poverty, food and energy security, climate change, pandemic and communicable diseases, and transnational organised crime. The Meeting adopted the Uluwatu Declaration, which reaffirmed the commitment of FEALAC member countries to continue and strengthen bi-regional cooperation for sustainable development.

The ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) Joint Committee will be meeting 17-21 June 2013 in Cairns, Australia. A key topic to be covered is the “Regional Patent Examination Training programme (RPET),” launched in April 2013. The RPET project is one of the economic cooperation activities underway to increase and facilitate business utilization of the AANZFTA. This significant AANZFTA  Economic Co-operation Work Programme (ECWP) provides patent offices from ASEAN Member States a unique educational training opportunity.

RPET is a comprehensive patent examination training programme that uses e-learning technology to enable remote and real-time delivery of training to participants in different countries.  The curriculum is based on Australia’s existing competency-based patent training program and focuses on search and examination under the Patent Cooperation Treaty  (PCT).

Indonesia brought together member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), agribusiness groups, NGOs, and international development agencies in a major forum on 4-5 June 2013 in Yogyakarta to harness regional cooperation on ensuring the active trading and easy accessibility of Asia’s main staple—rice.

The 2nd ASEAN Rice Trade Forum is convened by the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board (AFSRB) in coordination with the ASEAN Secretariat and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Financial support is provided by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction through ADB.

“The Forum seeks to serve as a platform to promote coherent and coordinated policies and investments affecting the regional rice market to advance food security in Southeast Asia,” said Ngin Chhay, current chair of the AFSRB and director of the Department of Rice Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Cambodia.

The Senior Officials of ASEAN and ROK held their 17th Dialogue in Surabaya on Tuesday, 11 June 2013. They discussed the latest developments in ASEAN and the ROK and the Korean Peninsula, and reviewed the ASEAN-ROK relations and its future direction.

The Meeting was co-chaired by H.E. I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, SOM Leader and Director-General for ASEAN Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia and H.E. Lee Kyung-soo, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the ROK. Indonesia is the current Country Coordinator for ASEAN-ROK Dialogue Relations.

The city of Nanning is no stranger to the ASEAN – China Dialogue Relations. This capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China, known as the Forest City of China, has played host to the “China-ASEAN Expo” (CAEXPO) since 2004, as well as the “China-ASEAN Business Investment Summit”.

This time around, the beautiful city also plays host for the inaugural “China – Southeast Asia People to People High-Level Dialogue”. With the theme of “Peace for Development and Cooperation for Win-Win – Common Dream and Aspiration of the People”, the Dialogue brought together government officials, political leaders, former senior politicians, first ladies, academies, business leaders, and representatives from non-governmental organisations, as well as the media from 10 ASEAN Member States (AMS), China, and Timor-Leste.

Under the theme "Young People - Building Tomorrow's ASEAN Today”, the 8th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth (AMMY VIII), and the 4th  ASEAN Plus Three Ministerial Meeting on Youth (4th AMMY+3) were concluded on 23 May 2013 in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. The Meetings discussed directions and initiatives to further promote ASEAN youths in contributing towards the future of ASEAN Community.

The Meeting reiterated an important position that young generations, especially young professionals, can play to boost ASEAN solidarity by offering voluntary community services in areas such as rural development, disaster relief, health, education and the environment as well as supporting vulnerable groups, including people who are differently-abled, and fostering entrepreneurial skills. The Meeting also discussed the unemployment crisis that millions of young people are facing around the globe.

ASEAN had embraced the concept of the rule of law, especially at the international level, ever since its inception in 1967, and it continues to be a cornerstone of the Association until now. First recognised in ASEAN’s founding document–the Bangkok Declaration–as a means to achieve regional peace and stability, the concept of the rule of law is now enshrined in the ASEAN Charter.

The concept of rule of law in the ASEAN Charter is read in conjunction with ASEAN’s commitment to democracy and good governance, adherence to constitutional government and to the promotion and protection of human rights, said H.E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN, in Brussels yesterday. Speaking at the Third High Level Meeting of the Inter-Regional Dialogue on Democracy held at the European Commission, SG Minh said that “the importance accorded to the rule of law has been brought to new heights in the ASEAN Charter where the rule of law is embraced officially as both a purpose and a principle”.

H.E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN, received Mr. Mike Smith, Executive Director of UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED), last week at the ASEAN Secretariat.

Mr. Smith extended his congratulations to SG Minh for taking his office as the Secretary-General of ASEAN and expressed satisfaction of the outcomes of cooperation between ASEAN and UN, especially between ASEAN and UNCTED thus far.

Several member countries saw the return of political leaders to office.  Election results in Malaysia and the Philippines lead this month’s edition of
“ASEAN Today.”    

Nattha Komolvadhin of Thai PBS in Bangkok and Dalton Tanonaka of Indonesia’s Metro TV in Jakarta report this month’s stories on the people and places of the dynamic Southeast Asia region.  Also included in this month’s program are the ASEAN membership hopes of East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, handicraft fusion in Vietnam, eco-tourism in Cambodia, and AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes winning “dress-up” bet with Virgin boss Richard Branson.  Durudee Sirichanya, Head of Public Outreach and Civil Society Division of the ASEAN Secretariat, has the regular feedback segment.

The 27th Meeting of the Working Group on International Investment Statistics (WGIIS) was held concurrently with the 6th Regional Workshop on Foreign Direct Investment Statistics (FDIS) in Jogjakarta, Indonesia earlier this month. The 3-day activity was hosted by Bank Indonesia with the assistance of the ASEANstats; and featured Mr. Christie F. J. Richards, an international expert on FDIS, as the featured resource person.

The Group noted the high levels of FDI inflows during 2010 to 2011, signaling recovery from the impact of global economic uncertainty of the previous two years. From 2010, the ASEAN region has gained relative importance as a magnet for FDI. These investments have been spearheaded by relatively new players such as the Sovereign Wealth Funds and state-owned enterprises. Another characteristic of the current period is the increasing intra-ASEAN investments. The increasing role of Singapore, as a regional hub of international investments, is the prime driver of intra-ASEAN investments. The current sectoral characteristics of ASEAN FDI reflect the preferences that direct investors have for manufacturing and services industries. 

H.E. Jovan Jovanović, presented his Letter of Credence as Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to ASEAN to H.E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN last week.

SG Minh welcomed the accreditation of Ambassador Jovanović and expressed appreciation to the desire of the Government of the Republic of Serbia to strengthen friendly relations and cooperation with ASEAN and ASEAN Member States. He further reassured Ambassador Jovanović that he and the ASEAN Secretariat stands ready to further promoting the relationship. He suggested exploring practical cooperation in the fields that Serbia has expertise and interest for mutual benefits, which would also serve as the foundation for closer relationship.

H.E. Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, extended his warm congratulations to H.E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN, on assuming his post as Secretary-General of ASEAN, and wished him success in his noble task. He informed that Cuba wishes to enhance its relations with ASEAN and builds the foundation of its relationship with each ASEAN Member States. H.E. Parrilla recalled the long-standing diplomatic relations between Cuba and countries in Southeast Asia, including in international fora such as United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, and G77, among others.

SG Minh extended his cordial welcome to the ASEAN Secretariat and also encouraged Cuba, as the first step, to accredit an Ambassador to ASEAN soon to further promote cooperation between Cuba and ASEAN in the areas of mutual interest. He also encouraged exploring possible concrete cooperation with Cuba, in the fields which Cuba has expertise such as public health, medicine, agriculture, education and sport.