ASEAN SECRETARIAT
JAKARTA
INDONESIA

NEWS RELEASE

 23 JANUARY 2003

UNDP APPROVES US$1.45 MILLION GRANT TO ASEAN FOR DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

JAKARTA (Jan 23) --  The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has approved a US$1.45 million grant to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for development cooperation.

The funding is part of the ASEAN-UNDP Partnership Facility aimed at providing analytical and advisory support services to ASEAN to address current and emerging issues to deepen regional integration within ASEAN and with other countries.

Under the Facility, the UNDP’s technical advisory support will focus on ways to accelerate the implementation of regional trade and investment liberalization and help narrow the development gap among ASEAN member countries and with other parts of the world.

“This facility would have the flexibility to address emerging issues relating to deepening regional economic integration such as the link between trade liberalization and poverty reduction, giving special attention to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam,” said Dhannan Sunoto, ASEAN Secretariat’s Director for Programme Coordination and External Relations, following a meeting with the UNDP in New York.

“It would assist ASEAN to analyze any policy issues that may emerge such as those resulting from China’s entry into the WTO and the new round of multilateral trade negotiations launched recently in Doha,” Mr. Dhannan added.

The three-year ASEAN-UNDP Partnership Facility will focus on human development, globalization and economic governance. It also aims to promote an open and balanced global trading regime that will facilitate the equal benefits of free trade and poverty reduction. It will also help promote wider perspectives on regional and global trade issues that would be useful for policy synergies and analysis of the link between trade, poverty-reduction and human development.

The Facility would focus its technical advisory support to analysis, dialogue and advocacy on strategic policy options to accelerate and complete the implementation of regional trade and investment liberalisation within the framework of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and ASEAN Investment Area (AIA). This would include the elimination of remaining non-tariff barriers to trade and restraints to foreign direct investment.

Newer members of ASEAN like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will also receive assistance to integrate them with multilateral arrangements such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The key focus would be on the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) and developing the conceptual framework of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), looking at the economic and social implications of efforts to boost the region’s economic competitiveness.

A common policy environment would also be promoted through the harmonisation of national laws, rules and standards affecting trade and investment like fair trade rules and environmental and product standards.

To monitor and measure the progress towards an ASEAN Vision 2020, the ASEAN-UNDP Partnership Facility will enable human development data to be collated and analyzed to help formulate strategies that will take ASEAN beyond the programmes initiated by the Hanoi Plan of Action (1999-2004). 

ENDS//

Issued by:

GERALDINE GOH
Senior Officer
Public Information
ASEAN SECRETARIAT

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