JOINT PRESS STATEMENT
2ND MEETING OF THE ASEAN INVESTMENT AREA (AIA) COUNCIL
29 SEPTEMBER 1999, SINGAPORE

1. The second meeting of the AIA Council was held on 29 September 1999 in Singapore and was chaired by H.E BG (NS) George Yeo, Minister for Trade and Industry, Singapore. The Heads of other Delegations are as follows:

Brunei
H.E. Dato Danial Hanafiah
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources

Cambodia
H.E. Kong Vibol
Second Vice Chairman, Council for the Development of Cambodia

Indonesia
H.E. Dr. Andung A. Nitimihardja
Deputy Minister, Ministry of Investment/BKPM

Laos
H.E. Bountiem Phissamay
Minister, Prime Minister's Office

Malavsia
Tan Sri Zainal Abidin Sulong
Chairman, Malaysian Industrial Development Authority

Myanmar
H.E. Brig. Gen. Maung Maung
Minister at the Office of the Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council

Philippines
H.E. Lilia Bautista
Senior Under-Secretary of Trade and Industry

Thailand
H.E. Abhisit Vejjajiva
Minister Attached to the Office of the Prime Minister

Vietnam
H.E. Nguyen Nhac
Vice Minister, Ministry of Planning & Investment

ASEAN Secretariat
H.E. Rodolfo C. Severino, Jr.
Secretary-General of ASEAN

2. All Member Countries have ratified the Framework Agreement on the ASEAN Investment Area and their respective instruments of ratification have been deposited with the Secretary-General of ASEAN. The AIA Agreement entered into force on 21 June 1999, when the Secretary-General of ASEAN received the last instrument of ratification. Cambodia which joined ASEAN on 30 April 1999, has acceded to the AIA Agreement.

3. Under the Agreement, Member Countries are committed to opening up industries and granting national treatment to all ASEAN investors immediately except in those industries and measures provided for in the Temporary Exclusion Lists (TEL), Sensitive Lists (SL) and General Exceptions (GE).

Progress of Implementation

Liberalisation

4. In the past year since the signing of the Agreement, ASEAN Member Countries have worked towards a freer flow of foreign investment. They recognise that direct investments are crucial to sustaining the pace of economic, industrial, infrastructure and technology development. Hence, ASEAN Member Countries have exerted their best efforts to ensure that the region is open for foreign investments and national treatment is granted with minimal exceptions. ASEAN has begun the process of opening up its closed or restricted industries and sectors for investments. The first step in this process is the preparation of a TEL for the manufacturing sector. Items in this list will be fully open to ASEAN Investors by 1 Jan 2003. These lists are now available to the public.

5. For the other sectors - agriculture, forestry, fishery, and mining - the preparation of the TEL is underway and is expected to be completed by 31 Dec 1999.

Interpretative Notes

6. For transparency and better understanding for investors, interpretative notes to the Agreement have been prepared. These notes are also now publicly available.

Comparable FDI Statistics

7. With the strong cooperation of all Member countries, ASEAN has successfully produced a set of comparable statistics in relation to FDI in ASEAN, with the support of the Task Force on the Collection and Reporting of FDI Statistics in ASEAN under the Chairmanship of Thailand. Given the importance of achieving comparable FDI statistics in ASEAN to support the AIA process and to provide continuity of the statistical work, the Ministers agreed to institutionalise the Task Force into a Working Group to address all FDI statistical issues and to monitor the flow of FDI in ASEAN.

Annual ASEAN Investment Report

8. The Council agreed to publish the 1999 ASEAN Investment Report which will provide useful analysis of the latest FDI trend and development in the ASEAN region. It will be launched at the forthcoming Informal ASEAN Summit, Nov 1999, Philippines. Among other things, the report will assess the magnitude, trend and development of FDI flows into the region. It will also examine the impact of the crisis on ASEAN's ability to attract FDI.

Implementation of the AIA Work Programme

9. A 1999-2003 Work Programme has been developed to support the implementation of the AIA Agreement and the Hanoi Plan of Action. In particular, the Work Programme contains specific activities to implement the 3 main pillars of the AIA. These are cooperation and facilitation, promotion and awareness, and liberalisation programmes. The specific work activities to be implemented in the short to medium term, cover among others:

Enhancement to the AIA Agreement

10. The AIA Council has agreed to expand the scope of the AIA Agreement to cover services incidental to manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and mining. This enhancement was done in view of the increasing importance of the service content in these sectors.

11. The Council has tasked the Coordinating Committee on Investments to work out the details of the implementation of these recommendations as soon as possible to capitalise on the upswing in the regional economies. Member Countries are targeting to finalise their negotiations on services incidental to the five sectors by 31 March 2000.

12. The AIA Council called on investors from ASEAN and outside of ASEAN to avail themselves of the "Bold Measures Statement" issued by the ASEAN Heads of State at their meeting in Hanoi in December 1998. All foreign investment applications submitted from now till 31 December 2000, and approved thereafter, can enjoy special incentives under the Bold Measures Statement.