Madam Co-Chairperson,
Colleagues,
Delegates,

Good morning to you all. Its nice to see you here, Under-Secretary. Although we regret that Secretary Christopher was unable to be here personally, please accept my warm welcome on behalf of all of us in ASEAN. This is Brunei Darussalam's third year as coordinator of our dialogue, and I am sure our meeting today will be as friendly and successful as ever.

In general terms, I feel that overall relations between ASEAN and the United States are very good and, on our part, we are happy to see the United States maintaining its much valued presence in our region.

I am especially encouraged by the fact that total trade between us has nearly tripled in just over a decade. The latest figures I have, show that trade between us in the twelve years before 1992 rose from US$ 23 billion to US$ 61 billion. The United States is now accounting for almost a fifth of ASEAN's global trade, about 18% is the figure I have. This means that you are now ranking second only to Japan. United States' investment in ASEAN has similarly continued to grow by over 17%. In this respect, I would like to thank the resident United States ambassadors for their efforts to promote investment opportunities back in the states. This outstanding growth over the last decade shows the increasing importance to each other of a trading relationship which, we hope will be maintained for many years to come.

Looking back over what has been going on over the past year, the first thing that comes to mind is our Twelfth Dialogue Meeting in Washington D,C. in May this year. I believe the success of this meeting can be greatly attributed to the way in which it brought our two private sectors into discussions about our economic plans. Their participation gave extra meaning to discussions and should help all our governments work closely with their private sectors with the aim of enhancing economic cooperation between ASEAN and the United States.

The Dialogue Meeting was also valuable in reviewing our Overall relationship, especially with regard to the question of security. We also much appreciated the chance to learn more about how the United States views our region. At the same time, it let our officials exchange views and keep each other up to date on various topics of mutual concern. Naturally, we found areas where we tended to disagree but this is part of the overall purpose of our dialogue and should help us understand each other's positions more precisely. This in turn will, I am sure, make consensus more possible in those areas where we have differences of views.

This will be my final year, Under-Secretary, as coordinator of our dialogue and we will be handing over to Indonesia after this Meeting. I'd like to say that it has been a great pleasure for me and my officials. I would personally like to thank your own people for making my job an easy one. I am confident that our dialogue relations will enjoy a further period of progress.

Lastly, may I ask you kindly to convey our appreciation to the Secretary of State for all the efforts he has made to ensure that relations between ASEAN and the United States remain friendly, cooperative and mutually respectful.

Thank you.