ASEAN Secretariat, Singapore, 23 Nov. - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations launched six publications aimed at promoting better understanding of the investment climate in the Asean region. This initiative is part of the process to promote the ASEAN region as a single investment area. The ASEAN Investment Area Agreement was signed in October 1998. The six titles are as follows:

The ASEAN Investment Report 2000 provides detailed analyses of foreign direct investment flows and patterns in ASEAN in 1999, and outlook for 2000 and 2001. AIR 2000 also provides an overview on selected topical issues such as on the relevance of investment incentives in attracting FDl, trend of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and changing investment strategies of investors in the region.

Facts and Figures: Cost of Investing and Doing Business in ASEAN provides information. for investors, policy makers, and the business community the cost of investing and doing business in ASEAN. This first issue consists of information and data on telecommunication costs, utilities costs, transportation costs, rentals, wages and salaries, and other types of operation costs. The publication also covers information and data on expatriates living costs in the respective ASEAN capitals.

Under the AIA arrangement, ASEAN countries are committed to immediately grant national treatment to ASEAN investors and open up their industries for investment with some exceptions. ASEAN Investment Area Series 2: Temporary Exclusion List and Sensitive List for Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery and Mining Sector (a) contains measuresand industries that temporarily cannot be granted to investors but will have to be phased out by a certain time (eg. end date for the manufacturing sector is 2003) and (b) relates to measures and industries that are closed or restricted to foreign investments due to, for instance, the need to protect national security, plants, animals and human life, and public moral. This publication provides the limited list of exceptions.

The Individual Action Plan is part of the AIA Series, which contains information on the individual member countries initiatives in support of the ASEAN Investment Area.

The Statistics of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in ASEAN: Extended Data Set contains comprehensive and comparable statistics on FDl flows to and within the region. The publication covers various types of FDI statistics, including data set based on balance-of-payments compilation system and on approval basis. FDI statistics in the manufacturing sector by country of origin and industry classification, and in the respective ASEAN sub-regional growth areas are also presented.

The ASEAN Investment Map (AIM) provides a bird eye's view of the investment facilities in the region and how an integrating ASEAN is linked by various infrastructure networks that promote efficient investment environment. Aside from presenting, among others, a pictorial illustration of industrial estates, export processing zones, free trade zones, science and technology parks, AIM also provides some useful facts and figures of the respective countries.

These publications can be obtained from the ASEAN Secretariat, 70A Jalan Sisingamangaraja, Jakarta 12110, Indonesia. Tel: (6221) 7262991 and fax (6221) 7398234