In the one and a half years since the ASEANWEB was launched at the Fifth ASEAN Summit, ASEAN's website on the Internet has grown not only in the breadth of the areas under its coverage, but also in the depth of detail that each section provides. In doing so, it has earned the reputation for being a speedy source for up-to-the-minute information on all things ASEAN.
In the area of political and security cooperation, individual sections have been created for the ASEAN Ministerial Meetings, ASEAN Regional Forum, Post Ministerial Conferences, Basic Political Documents and Statements made by ASEAN Foreign Ministers. This enables users to access the desired information in the shortest possible time. The progress of the 29th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting held in Jakarta in July 1996 was broadcast simultaneously on the ASEANWEB to enable users to keep abreast of the latest developments.
The scope of the information on economic cooperation has been widened to include all the sectors concerned. These include Agriculture and Forestry, Customs, Finance and Banking, Industry, Intellectual Property Rights, Investment, Minerals and Energy, Services, Standards and Conformance, Tourism and Transportation and Communication. The progress of the 28th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting held in Jakarta in September 1996 was also made available simultaneously on ASEANWEB to enable users to keep track of the latest developments.
The section on functional cooperation has been enlarged to include the remaining sectors under social development namely AIDS, Children, and Women. The new triannual newsletter entitled ASEAN Interface which reports developments in functional activities has also been incorporated.
A new section on the ASEAN Summits has been incorporated. Information here includes the joint communique, declarations, agreements, protocols as well as the photo-graphs of the ASEAN Heads of Government at the Summits. The progress of the First Informal ASEAN Summit held in Jakarta in November 1996 was also broadcast simultaneously on the ASEANWEB.
A separate section on dialogue relations was created to provide information on the progress of the relations between ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners through various fora such as Dialogue sessions, and Joint Cooperation Committee and Ministerial Meetings. This section includes ASEAN's new Dialogue Partners, China, India and Russia.
During the year in review, the Secretariat developed a new section entitled Towards ASEAN-Ten to provide information on Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Progress made by these countries in their accession to various ASEAN Agreements was also incorporated.
The section, Acronyms, should prove useful to ASEANWEB users who have been baffled by the plethora of abbreviations used in documents pertaining to ASEAN activities. Newcomers to the ASEAN scene and those who wish to learn more about other ASEAN activities will find this section a boon.
To further familiarise its users with ASEAN and its related activities, the Secretariat has created a section on the ASEAN Logo, ASEAN Map and Member Country Profiles. The section on country profiles include information on the Heads of State and Heads of Government, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Ministers of Trade and an overview of the country concerned. Hyperlinked as it is to the homepages of Member Countries, as seen in Table 12, the ASEANWEB provides a quick and easy route to the individual members of ASEAN.
In addition to updating existing sections by incorporating the latest information, under the publications section, all issues of the ASEAN Standing Committee Annual Report have been incorporated i.e. from 1981 to 1996. Other useful publications, such as The AFTA Reader and ASEAN Update are now also accessible through the ASEANWEB.
The number of visitors to the ASEANWEB has increased five-fold since June 1996. Researchers from both ASEAN and non-ASEAN educational institutions are the main ASEANWEB users, constituting 80% of ASEANWEB visitors. Companies from ASEAN and non-ASEAN business communities represent 15 per cent of total visitors while the remaining five per cent are international organisations and private individuals.
The Secretariat will continue to explore ways to ensure that the information incorporated is timely and relevant and to further publicise the ASEANWEB so that it will remain the primary source of information on ASEAN.
