1 . The President of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Soeharto formally opened the Sixth Meeting of the ASEAN Economic Ministers which was held in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 5-7 June 1978.


2. The Meeting was attended by H.E. Dr. Widjojo Nitisastro, Minister Coordinator, for Economic, Financial and Industrial Affairs, and Chairman of the National Development Planing Agency f Indonesia; H.E. Mr. Radius Prawiro, Minister of Trade and Cooperatives of Indonesia; Dr. Soebroto, Minister of Mines and Energy of Indonesia Soedarsono Hadisapoetro, Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia; H.E. Mr. A.R. Soehoed, Minister of Industry of Indonesia; H.E. Mr. Rachmat Saleh, Governor, Central Bank of Indonesia; H.E. Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamed, Deputy Prime Minister of Trade and Industry of Malaysia; H.E. Dr. Gerardo P.. Sicat, Secretary of Economic Planning of the Philippines; H.E. Mr. Vicente T. Paterno, Secretary of Industry and Chairman, Board of Investments of the Philippines; H.E. Mr. Cesar EA. Virata, Secretary of Finance of the Philippines; H.E. Mr. Hon Sui Sen, Minister for Finance of Singapore; H.E. Mr. Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister of State for Finance of Singapore; H.E. Mr. Ong Teng Cheong, Senior Minister of State for Communications; H.E. Mr. Kasame Chatikavanij, Minister of Industry of Thailand; H.E. Mr. Prok Amaranand, Deputy Minister of Commerce of Thailand, and their respective Delegations. H.E. Mr. Umarjadi Njotowijono, Secretary-General of the ASEAN Secretariat was also in attendance.


3. In his opening address H.E. Pesident Soeharto stated that the Meetings of Heads of Government and reciprocal visits of the officials at All levels were clear, indications of the growing mutual confidence, understanding and friendship.


4. He emphasized that although ASEAN has been recognized as a reality and a force, it was not intended to confront against any county whatsoever. It would neither, put itself against any group of nations nor become the tool of any major power.


5. The President noted that since the meetings of Heads of Government held in Bali and Kuala Lumpur, progress has been achieved in various fields. Moreover ASEAN is determined and will continuously exert efforts to reach new agreement. He cited the increasing recognition of the international community gained after the Kula Lumpur Summit Meeting, by pointing to the progress achieved in the dialogue with the industrialized countries.


6. The President stressed that ASEAN should develop in such, a way that it is i. position to maintain its capability to determine its own future and should enable its member, countries, to strengthen their, own national resilience.


7. He expressed the hope that during the current meeting of the ASEAN Economic Ministers, the number of commodities covered by the ASEAN Preferential Trading Arrangements be considerably increased to refflct serious efforts of ASEAN member states to carry out cooperation in the field of trade 'Which is mutually beneficial to, all ASEAN countries.


8. The President also hoped that rapid progress could be achieved on a number of ASEAN Industrial Projects, so that their construction could immediately be initiated.


9. The President was further pleased to learn that significant progress had been achieved in the fields of food, agriculture and forestry which is of utmost importance to the life of the majority of the peoples of ASEAN. He also stressed the importance of an agreement on the safeguard of ASEAN food problems.


10. H.E. Dr. Widjojo Nitisastro, Minister Coordinator for Economic, Financial and Industrial Affairs, and Chairman of the National Development, Planning Agency of Indonesia, and H.E. Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamed, Deputy Prime Minister/Minister for Trade and Industry of Malaysia, were unanimously elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman, respectively.


11. The Meeting considered and adopted the Reports of the five Committees of the ASEAN Economic Ministers. .


12. The Economic Ministers approved the trade preferences on 755 additional items to be implemented on 1 September 1978. It was further agreed that at each future round of negotiations on trade preferences each country would make offers for at least 100 items.


13 . The Meeting agreed that member countries, set up immediately a system for regionally coordinated national reserves for rice.


14. The ASEAN Economic Ministers agreed on the text of. the Basic Agreement on ASEAN Industrial Projects, which covers for the first five ASEAN Industrial Projects the principles governing their establishment, equity participation, membership in the board of directors, the manners of obtaining project financing, entitlement of products to Preferential Trading Arrangement, treatment on the tax and incentives, laws of the host country, and pricing of the product to the .,ember countries.


15. The ASEAN, Economic Ministers accepted the Malaysia Urea Project as an ASEAN Industrial Project, with a capacity of 1,500 MTPD Urea.


16. The ASEAN Economic Ministers agreed on the texts of Supplementary Agreements for the ASEAN Urea Projects in Indonesia and Malaysia. Those Supplementary Agreements contain the special provision needed to supplement the Basic Agreement for these two projects, and cover gas price, the nature of the market support required and the details of the product pricing mechanism.


17. The ASEAN Economic Minister are endorsing the Basic, Agreement and the supplementary Agreements for these first two-ASEAN industrial Projects to the Foreign Ministers for their signing.


18. The member countries will designate their respective share holding entities in early July which shall then proceed to negotiate the Joint Venture Agreement leading to incorporation of the project company.


19. The ASEAN Economic Ministers directed the Committee on Industry, Minerals and Energy (COIME) to invite the ASEAN Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ASEAN-CCI) to come forward with tentative industrial complementation schemes within the framework of draft guidelines to be provided to them by Committees on Industry, Minerals and Energy. The workability of those guidelines would thus be evaluated against these private sector proposals, and they could be improved or modified accordingly, before the guidelines would be considered by the next ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting.


20. The Meting noting a move on the part of the Australian Government to introduce a scheme on low cost air travel, expressed concern that the scheme might prohibit the traditional stop-overs in ASEAN region by travelers between Australia and Europe. To this end the Meeting decided to bring forth the matte, to the Australian-. Government with the hope that any low cost air travel to be introduced between Australia and Europe would not be detrimental to the tourist and civil aviation. industries in the ASEAN region.


21. The Meeting agreed that rediscount facility be iplemented as an instrument for Preferential Trading Arrangement.


22. The Meeting agreed to accept in principle the proposed Japan- ASEAN Cooperation Centre on Trade, Tourism and Investment in Tokyo and that detailed study of the proposals will be made.


23. The Meeting revised the progress in ASEAN dialogue with third countries and international organizations.


24. The Meeting noted the forthcoming Second ASEAN-US,Dialogue at Ministerial level will be held Washington DC in August 1978.


25. The Meeting noted that an ASEAN-Australia Investment Seminar would be held in Melbourne on 19-21 June 1978.


26. The Meeting agreed that Indonesia would host the Second ASEAN-EEC Conference on Industrial Coopera- tion.


27. In the field of commodities the meeting reviewed the status of the negotiation on the Common Fund. The Meeting reiterated the importance of the Common Fund to the achievement of the objectives of the Integrated Programme for commodities. Accordingly the Meeting emphasized the need for its early establishment an operation. The Meeting agreed the ASEAN would continued to play and active role in efforts to bring negotiation on the Common Fund to a successful end. The Meeting welcome initiatives to find solutions to the differences between different groups of countries and pledged to continue playing a constructive role at the next negotiative conference. With regard to STABEX the Meeting reiterated desire to pursue the establishment of STABEX between ASEAN and third countries as expeditiously as possible.


28. The Delegations of Malaysia, the Philippines , Singapore and Thailand expressed their sincere appreciation to the people and Government of Indonesia for the warm hospitality accorded to them and for the excellent arrangement made for the Meeting.


29. The Meeting was held in the traditional spirit of ASEAN cordiality and solidarity.