ASEAN-European Communities

A significant event during the year under review in ASEAN - EC relations was the Fifth Ministerial Meeting in Dublin, Ireland from 1 5 - 16 November 1984. A month later, the Fifth Meeting of the ASEAN - EEC Joint Cooperation Commit- tee (JCC) was held in Cha-am, Thailand, 17 - 18 December 1984.

The Ministers agreed that the 5-year Cooperation Agreement, which ends in October 1985, fulfilled its role in consolidating, deepening and diversifying cooperation between the two entities. They however acknowledged some limitations and weaknesses in the Agreement whose continuation should provide the opportunity to define new priorities and directions for cooperation.

The Ministers also recognized the particular importance of increased cooperation in the field of training, science and technology and the encouragement of European investments in ASEAN countries. In this regard, the EC Ministers agreed to undertake a study on how the European Investment Bank (EIB) could assist in the pursuit of this objective. The 5th JCC reiterated such cooperation and agreed to pursue the areas decided by the Ministers to bring about more concrete implementation.

On trade matters, the EC enhanced its commitment to assist ASEAN trade promotion activities with the signing of the Financing Agreement for the 1984 ASEAN'- EEC Trade Promotion Programme. The EC has committed 1 million ECU for a training package on Professional Skills Development. A Trade Promotion Meeting to review the implementation of the projects was convened during the third quarter of 1985.

ASEAN presented a Memorandum on Improvements of the EEC GSP for 1986 and beyond for the consideration of the EEC in its mid term review. Two ASEAN - EC GSP seminars were held in Bangkok and Singapore 1 8 - 19 and 21-23 March 1985 respectively. They were sponsored and financed by the EC to facilitate discussions between EC experts in their respective fields of operations and technicalities of the EC GSP and participating ASEAN officials and company representatives.

An important outcome of the ASEAN - EEC Ministerial Meeting, during which Brunei Darussalam acceded to the Cooperation Agreement, was the agreement by both sides to convene a meeting at ministerial level on economic matters scheduled to be held in October 1985, during which time a review of the ASEAN - EC Cooperation Agreement is expected to be made and various trade and commercial issues discussed.