The successful convening of five PCCs in the last quarter of 1996 marked a significant milestone in AAECP project implementation. The PCCs, which will meet twice a year, served as a platform for ASEAN and Australia to coordinate project implementation and for clarifying administrative matters, such as those listed in Table 32, in addition to the responsibilities spelled out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for AAECP Phase III. Feasibility study missions have been sent to Vietnam in the past year to look into how Vietnam could be included in the on-going projects under the AAECP Projects Stream. Representatives from Vietnam have participated actively in the PCCs convened for the five on-going projects.

AusAID is currently consulting ASEAN on the possibility of combining the two pending projects under the AAECP Phase III, Electricity and the Environment: A Framework for Decision-Making in the ASEAN Region and Feasibility Study for the ASEAN (and Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar) Electricity Grid Interconnection.

With respect to the project Transboundary Pollution of Haze and Acidic Deposition in the ASEAN Countries (Non-forest Fire Component), AusAID informed ASEAN in September 1996 that due to budgetary constraints, there are insufficient funds to further implement the project.

A study of five rounds of the Linkages Stream Programme (LSP) presented to the 5th Meeting of the AAECP Joint Planning Committee held in January 1996 noted that while ASEAN applications accounted for half of the number of applications received, the success rate of ASEAN applications was only 10.6 percent (compared to 37.2 percent for Australian applicants). In this connection, the 17th ASEAN Australia Forum noted the need to enhance the effectiveness of ASEAN participation and agreed to study this matter during the mid-term evaluation of the Linkages Stream. The mid-term review is scheduled to be held later in 1997.

The seventh round of the LSP which closed in October 1996 attracted a record 98 applications, of which twenty-five came from ASEAN Member Countries. The Seventh Meeting of the Joint Linkages Stream Appraisal Panel was convened in February 1997.

The ASEAN-Australia Forum noted that there was interest from Australia, particularly on the part of the Northern Territories, in the ASEAN growth areas in the BIMP-EAGA activities. Australia noted that these growth areas needed to be better known and proposed that the presentations by ASEAN Member Countries involved in the growth areas be held back-to-back with future meetings between ASEAN and Australia. Australia's interest in the BIMP-EAGA was reiterated during the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences held in July 1996 in Jakarta.

The ASEAN-Australia Forum agreed to give priority to expanding exchanges on cultural heritage management and preservation to strengthen ties between leading cultural institutions in ASEAN and Australia, particularly through the implementation of flagship projects. As a follow-up to the forum, AusHeritage submitted a concept paper on the development of a regional policy for heritage management which was welcomed by the Combined Meeting of the ASEAN COCI Working Groups which met to formulate the Second Plan of Action on Culture and Information in Udon Thani in March 1997. This was followed by a proposal, Regional ASEAN Policy and Strategy for Cultural Heritage presented during the 32nd Meeting of the ASEAN COCI in Langkawi in July 1997. COCI has agreed to provide details concerning the cost of the project and its activities. Meanwhile, the ASEAN-Australia Art Museum Professionals' Workshop and Study Tour is scheduled to take place in August 1997 in Australia.