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Joint Press Release The 7th Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Environmental Economics
Kuala Lumpur, 27-28 May 1997 |
The Seventh Meeting of' .the ASEAN Working Group on Environmental Economics (AWGEE) was held on 27-28 May 1997 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting was chaired by Malaysia and was attended by delegates from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat.
AWGEE is one of the Six Working Groups set up by the ASEAN Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN) with the following objectives:
- Initiate activities that will make use of natural resource and environmental accounting studies and approaches;
- Initiate studies on development of environmental and trade policies which are supportive to the principles of sustainable development;
- Establish mechanisms that encourage government and private sectors to adopt appropriate environmental standards;
- Enhance collaboration with international bodies overseeing the implementation of international agreements and cooperations; and
- Develop strategic programmes of action that will strengthen the role and participation of major groups on environment management and decision making.
The Meeting reviewed the progress of the Environmental and Natural Resources Accounting for ASEAN Countries (ENRA) project, which has the following objectives:
To apply and develop a practical accounting system for natural and environmental resources which can be implemented, individually or collectively, by ASEAN countries; to study the market structure of natural resources in order to determine a basis for pricing policy; and to identify economic activities which cause adverse changes to the environment, and to study the costs of preserving environmental quality.
This project is expected to be completed in December 1997.
The Meeting also agreed to undertake a study on Adaptability of Economic Instruments for Pollution Control in ASEAN Member Countries with the following objective:
To assess the capacity as well as feasibility of applying economic instruments to pollution prevention and waste management of ASEAN member countries with special emphasis on the urban environment.
Other matters discussed at the Seventh AWGEE Meeting were:
- Review of Progress on Issues Discussed at the Sixth AWGEE Meeting;
- Matters arising from the 7th ASOEN Meeting and the 3rd Informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment;
- ASEAN-UNDP ASP-5: Sub-programme on Trade and Environment Training Seminars; and
- Implication on trade through implementation of ISO 14000 with particular emphasis on Ecolabelling and Life Cycle Assessment.
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