For while political cooperation brings about the peace that makes economic cooperation and development possible, functional cooperation provides the means by which the prosperity that springs from such development is shared. Indeed our Heads of State and Government recognised this when they called for the "elevation of functional cooperation to a higher plane to bring shared prosperity to all Members" during the 1995 Bangkok Summit.

Their call sparked off a flurry of activity over the year which culminated in the adoption of the Framework for the Elevation of Functional Cooperation to a Higher Plane at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in July this year. Amongst other things, the Framework contained the theme for ASEAN functional cooperation: "Shared prosperity through human development, technological competitiveness and social cohesiveness". The same Framework also provided for the publication of a newsletter. Thus was spawned FC Interface - an acknowledgment of the need to increase general and intra-ASEAN awareness of the activities carried out under the auspices of functional cooperation.

I trust that this tri-annual newsletter will offer a greater insight into what functional cooperation entails and the prospects it holds for bringing ASEAN closer to the peoples of the region. Through FC Interface I hope that readers will realise that the area of functional cooperation, despite its unwieldly moniker, holds great promise for encouraging increased people-to-people contact and hence, for strengthening the bonds between Member Countries.

Dato' Ajit Singh
Secretary-General of ASEAN