I am extremely delighted to be able to join colleagues in the 14th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue. Apart from this distinct pleasure and privilege, it is always good to visit this very pleasant city, capital of a lovely country. For this, I am deeply grateful to the Right Honorable Don McKinnon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who invited me to visit New Zealand officially at this time.

New Zealand was one of the very first dialogue partners of ASEAN, and Don McKinnon is an old friend of ASEAN, having taken part in an unbroken string of eight consecutive Post-Ministerial Conferences.

New Zealand has been a dialogue partner of ASEAN for twenty-three years. Through more than three decades, ASEAN and New Zealand have had a very fruitful and relatively trouble-free relationship. Our cooperation has covered quite specific fields and has been made up of concrete endeavors. We have worked together on practical projects that have benefited both our peoples. Today, we begin to examine how to adjust these endeavors so as to make them even more beneficial. We begin to explore possible new areas for further cooperation. We do this in the face of the new situation that confronts the peoples of ASEAN and New Zealand as fellow-inhabitants of the great Asia-Pacific region.

The 14th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue takes place in the midst of the economic crisis that has arisen from the breakdown in capital markets and has hit the ASEAN nations particularly hard. Among other effects, the impact of the crisis on ASEAN has reduced ASEAN's capacity to import goods and services from New Zealand and to invest in New Zealand. Actual trade figures show this.

Individual ASEAN nations have been making the necessary adjustments in their institutions, practices and policies. They have been taking the necessary steps to mitigate the economic and social impact of the crisis on themselves and their peoples. ASEAN itself, as an association, has responded with collective measures. They have established a surveillance process for keeping track of macroeconomic indicators and capital flows so as to alert themselves to impending trouble in the future. They have take >n steps to make possible and encourage the greater use of ASEAN currencies for intra-ASEAN trade.

Above all, contrary to popular expectations, ASEAN has re-affirmed its commitment to regional economic integration and, indeed, has decided to hasten it. ASEAN has repeatedly expressed its determination not only to push ahead with the completion of the ASEAN Free Trade Area but to accelerate it. Earlier this month, the ASEAN Economic Ministers agreed on specific measures to bring this about. Not only that. ASEAN is moving ahead on its negotiations on freeing up trade in services. It has decided to o >pen up its industries further to foreign investments. The Economic Ministers just signed the framework agreement on the creation of the ASEAN Investment Area for this purpose.

At the same time, ASEAN remains open to the rest of the world, through World Trade Organization (WTO), through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and in its own self-interest.

However, ASEAN cannot deal with the economic crisis by itself. The crisis, after all, has its roots at least partly in the international financial system. A global problem needs global solutions. This suggests a further area for ASEAN-New Zealand cooperation, and it is in making a substantive contribution to the international debate on the global financial system within the context of globalization. After all, ASEAN and New Zealand worked together in founding the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) for the ca >use of regional peace and stability. ASEAN and New Zealand worked together in setting up APEC, a unique forum for the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment and for economic and technical cooperation. We can build on these achievements by expanding the scope and deepening the intensity of ASEAN-New Zealand relations.

It is with this in mind that I wish the 14th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue success.