ASEAN-Japan

1. On ASEAN-Japan Relations, the eleventh in the series of annual dialogue meetings between ASEAN and Japan was held in Manila from 3-4 October 1989 during the year under review.

2. Significant results of the Eleventh ASEAN- Japan Forum included Japan's agreement to the ASEAN proposal for the participation of the private sector at the Forum. The participation of ASEAN and Japanese private sectors can start at the Twelfth Forum which is tentatively scheduled for September 1990. Japan also expressed their readiness to hold a meeting of trade experts between ASEAN and Japan before the next Forum. The Trade Experts Meeting is expected to provide a venue for extensive discussion and resolution of bilateral trade issues.

3. Another significant development during the period under review was the ASEAN-Japan Development Fund (AJDF). Indonesia has committed funds from the AJDF under Category B (National Projects) while Malaysia has disbursed funds from the AJDF for its projects under the same Category during the period under review. The other member countries namely, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand are still in the process of negotiating with the Japanese authorities (on the utilization of the Fund) and there appears to be a need to expeditiously settle all outstanding issues between Japan and the ASEAN member countries concerned on the utilization of the Fund. There has been no progress also on the utilization of Category A (Regional AJDF Projects and the equity portion of the Fund.

4. The Eleventh ASEAN-Japan Forum provided valuable opportunity for discussions among ASEAN and Japanese officials on the Uruguay Round of the MTN and Commodity Issues currently being addressed by international economic forums. The Forum also addressed trade and trade-related issues affecting ASEAN countries and Japan; investment and industrial cooperation; development cooperation in the areas of food, agriculture and forestry, science and technology, HRD; and cultural cooperation.

5. In view of the difficulty encountered by the ASEAN Committee on Social Development in sourcing funds for its projects, ASEAN recently decided to request Japan to allocate US$ 5 Million from the ASEAN Cultural Fund as seed money for the ASEAN Social Development Fund. A joint demarche on this subject has been presented to Japan and ASEAN agreed to follow-up the matter during the PMC in July 1990.

6. The Twelfth Meeting of the ASEAN-Japan Forum is scheduled to held in Tokyo, Japan in September 1990.

7. Brunei Darussalam has acceded to the Agreement on the Establishment of the ASEAN Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment and Tourism (APC) in Tokyo. The Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to Indonesia deposited with the Secretary General of the ASEAN Secretariat, Brunei Darussalam's instrument of acceptance as well as affixing his signature on behalf of Brunei Darussalam, to the original text of the said Agreement. The same procedures were also carried out in Tokyo by the Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to Japan, as Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan is the depository of the other original text of the Agreement on 8 June 1990.