ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, 14-15 June 2006

The ASEAN Secretariat warmly welcomed around 20 delegates from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines - East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) to a GTZ sponsored event called “The ASEAN Secretariat – BIMP-EAGA Consultation Meeting”. The event took place in the ASEAN Secretariat building on June 14-15, 2006. Representations from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ASEAN-Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) and AusAID were also presence at the Consultation.

The move to enhance BIMP-EAGA and ASEAN cooperation originated from the BIMP-EAGA Roadmap to Development for the period 2006-2010 which calls for, among others, strengthening linkages and coordination mechanism with ASEAN. The BIMP-EAGA Roadmap was approved and adopted during the 2nd BIMP-EAGA Leaders’ Summit in Kuala Lumpur last December 11, 2005.

The Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Economic Cooperation, Mr. Nicholas Tandi Dammen, presented his opening remarks on behalf of the Secretary-General of ASEAN. In his remarks, Mr. Dammen expressed his strong hope that the Consultation could lead to strong and fruitful collaboration between the ASEAN Secretariat and BIMP-EAGA.

Six major topics were discussed during the Consultation which covers: 1) ASEAN’s institutional set-up and operational and management practices; 2) the feasibility to pilot-test ASEAN agreements in BIMP-EAGA region; 3) coordination mechanism in fostering closer partnership between public and private sector; 4) ASEAN’s practices and procedures in the implementation mechanism and monitoring and evaluation system; 5) high-profiling BIMP-EAGA development agenda into the ASEAN’s framework; and 6) promoting BIMP-EAGA’s activities and documents through ASEANWeb.

This consultative initiative is under the GTZ project which aims to, among others, strengthen BIMP-EAGA institutions and their links with other international groups such as ASEAN. The 4-year project has its Project Management Office at the Headquarters of the ADB in Manila to ensure close coordination of activities between GTZ and ADB in the sub-region.

At the sidelines of the Consultation, AusAID presented its new initiative “East ASEAN Initiative” as Australia’s assistance to the sub-region. Utilization of the AU$ 2.7 million initiative will be initiated through four (4) initial workshops covering issues on security, infrastructure, economic growth and investment, and donor coordination. The workshops will identify pilot activities to move the development in the BIMP-EAGA sub-region forward.