Excellency,
Distinguished Delegates,

It is a great pleasure for me to extend, on behalf of my ASEAN colleagues, a warm welcome to our co-chairman, His Excellency Mr. Yukihiko Ikeda, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the members of the Japanese delegation to our annual meeting of the ASEAN-Japan dialogue.

Over the past 12 months, ASEAN and Japan have worked closely together in a number of important multilateral fora, including the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Osaka, the Asia-Europe Meeting in Bangkok in March this year, and the third ASEAN Regional Forum yesterday. I hope that our meeting today will be able to build upon this momentum and further strengthen our partnership.

The Fifth ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in December last year was the first time that the Heads of Government of all ten states of Southeast Asia gathered together to share their visions for the region. Among their many shared views is that a peaceful and harmonious community of one Southeast Asia will be a strong safeguard for peace and prosperity in this part of the world.

I believe Japan shares this view. Japan has an important role to play in complementing ASEAN's efforts to promote peace and prosperity in the region. We encourage Japan to be constructively ciii.4agcd in the region and to show support regional security initiatives such as the Treaty on the Southeast Asia' Nuclear Weapon Free Zone and ZOPFAN. This will reinforce on-going efforts to ensure that the APF process evolves into an instrument for the preservation of peace, prosperity and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

On the economic front, the ASEAN countries are all committed to greater economic cooperation, liberalization and integration. ASEAN is resolved to accelerate the establishment of AFTA and to include unprocessed agricultural products in the process. ASEAN has broadened its cooperation to include services and intellectual property. Furthermore, the ASEAN leaders in Bangkok have agreed to strengthen transportation and energy links in the region.

As ASEAN membership expands to encompass all the countries of Southeast Asia, Japan will benefit from increasing her role in the development of Indochina. This will help new ASEAN members to integrate their economies into the Southeast Asia mainstream. Japan should consider extending assistance to help facilitate the transition of these countries to market economies. In this regard, ASEAN hopes that Japan would support the recent ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation.

These on-going and new initiatives in the economic field, together with the phenomenal growth rates enjoyed by ASEAN member countries, give rise to new trade and investment opportunities for ASEAN's partners. Japan has for many years been the most important trading partner and source of financial and technical assistance as well as investment for ASEAN, now Japan's second largest trading partner after the United States.

The balance of trade, however, has been in Japan's favour for several consecutive years. Hence, ASEAN has urged Japan to increase her imports to counter the trend of ASEAN's trade imbalance with Japan. It is necessary at this point in our relations to correct existing structural imbalances in ASEAN-Japan trade relations. Even though the Japanese government has recently reduced tariff barriers for a number of industrial products, the ASEAN countries continue to experience great difficulties in gaining access for many of their manufactured and agricultural exports to Japan.

ASEAN urges Japan to undertake measures to reduce and, where possible, eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers. ASEAN would welcome in particular the elimination of discriminatory tariff treatment for similar products imported from different countries, the relaxation of excessively stringent hygiene standards to conform with international standards, the increase of import quotas for ASEAN exports to Japan, and greater transparency in the allocation of such quotas.

ASEAN recognizes that the responsibility for such issues rests among several agencies and ministries on the Japanese side. ASEAN therefore proposes the establishment in Tokyo of a framework of consultation to be used as a focal point to ensure comprehensiveness and continuity of dialogue on trade matters. Such a framework should comprise representatives from all Japanese authorities concerned with market access, including the Foreign Ministry, MITI, the Agriculture Ministry and the Health Ministry, while the ASEAN side should be represented by senior trade and commercial officials of ASEAN Embassies.

On our part, ASEAN has been making efforts to improve the quality of its exports to meet the requirements of Japanese consumers. The Japanese government, and the private sector, have been very helpful in giving, technical assistance to ASEAN in this regard.

Japan's economic strength is undisputed. ASEAN therefore continues to hope that Japan will be bold enough to reduce and eventually eliminate the existing barriers to trade, particularly in agricultural commodities. Since our economies are complementary, it would be mutually beneficial to improve the Generalized System of Preferences scheme in ASEAN-Japan trade.

The ASEAN countries continue to encourage foreign investments in line with their economic objectives by striving to improve the climate for investment. Discussions are now underway to establish an ASEAN Investment Area. ASEAN highly values Japan's contribution to the development of the region's economics, particularly the role Japanese investment has played in the industrialization of ASEAN. ASEAN wishes to see more Japanese plants in ASEAN utilize locally available parts and components. ASEAN also wishes to see a more liberal transfer of modem and appropriate technology that would enable the ASEAN countries to develop their industrial capabilities and human resources.

As the world economy has benefited enormously from an open international trade regime, our continued collaboration in multilateral economic fora will be vital to sustain growth and development in the region. We look to Japan, as a leading trading nation, to show leadership in trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in such regional bodies as APEC. In the area of economic and technical cooperation, we support Japan's initiative on the APEC Partners for Progress Programme and appreciate Japan's generous contribution to the APEC Central Fund in the form of the TILF Special Account. ASEAN also looks forward to working closely with Japan in the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to ensure that Asia-Europe link-ages benefit our region to the fullest.

At the global level, ASEAN attaches high priority to the First Ministerial Meeting of the WTO to be convened in Singapore at the end of 1996. ASEAN hopes to coordinate closely with Japan to ensure that the agenda of the Meeting remains firmly focused on trade and reflects a balance of the interests of both developed and developing nations.

In the social field, ASEAN continues to attach great importance to social development. ASEAN's leadership has never failed to recognize the need to maintain a balance between economic and social development in order to achieve overall progress and political stability. It is with this understanding that during the 5th ASEAN Summit, the ASEAN leaders agreed to elevate ASEAN's functional cooperation to a higher plane to bring shared prosperity to all its members.

Japan has contributed significantly to the progress made in this important field of ASEAN cooperation. Development cooperation programmes such as the Japan -ASEAN Cooperation Promotion Programme (JACPP) and Inter-ASEAN Technical Exchange Programme (IATEP), cultural cooperation programmes such as the ASEAN Cultural Fund, the Japan-ASEAN Friendship Programme for the 21st Century, the Japan Scholarship for ASEAN Youth and the Japan-ASEAN Exchange Programme have been important pillars of ASEAN-Japan dialogue relations. These programmes have brought the peoples of ASEAN and Japan closer together, resulting in increased mutual understanding and trust. ASEAN therefore looks forward to Japan's continued support of these development and cultural programmes.

Among the many useful ASEAN-Japan cooperation programmes, of particular significance, in the view of ASEAN, is the ASEAN Promotion Centre (APC) in Japan. This organization, aimed at promoting ASEAN trade, investment and tourism, has made significant progress in promoting economic ties between the ASEAN countries and Japan by organizing trade fairs, investment seminars and tourism exhibitions. ASEAN therefore urges the Japanese government to continue providing financial support and necessary assistance to the Centre, enabling its continuity to further promote and strengthen ASEAN-Japan economic cooperation. It is also important for the Centre to consider allowing Vietnam and other new members of ASEAN to benefit from the activities of the Centre.

I wish to express, on behalf of ASEAN, our wholehearted appreciation to the Japanese government for having been greatly supportive of and helpful to ASEAN's efforts. Our geographical proximity and close political and economic ties have made us natural partners for the security and economic well-being of our peoples. If our relations are to develop into a successful and lasting partnership, there is a need to forge greater cooperation and understanding between ASEAN and Japan. On our part, the ASEAN leaders have agreed that ASEAN shall remain forward-looking and shall deepen its external relations with its partners. Let us continue to work hard to bring about a deeper appreciation of each other's needs and to fulfill them. In this world of ever growing interdependence, we can afford nothing less.