It is now almost 20 years since Australia became the first country to establish formal links with ASEAN. Over those two decades, our relationship has grown and diversified in keeping with the far-reaching changes within all our countries and in the region as a whole.

The changes you have brought about within ASEAN have clearly been based on a far-sighted analysis of regional and broader international trends. The 1992 Singapore Summit was a watershed for ASEAN, marking the culmination of efforts to refocus and revitalise the Organisation in the light of the end of the Cold War and the strong emergence of the Asia Pacific region as a powerhouse for economic growth.

Australia particularly welcomes the adoption of a more inclusive approach to ASEAN's regional dialogue on political and security issues. We wholeheartedly support your efforts to engage major players in the PMC who have hitherto not enjoyed formal links with ASEAN as a grouping. The recasting of the PMC-Centred dialogue on regional security to take in all the key regional factors [through creation of the ASEAN Regional Forum] will no doubt enhance regional confidence and make a major contribution to global peace and security.

The last year has also seen ASEAN move ahead with the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). As I said when we met in Manila last year, this initiative has sent a strong signal to the broader international community about ASEAN's collective economic capacity and development. Australia welcomes AFTA to the extent that it is a trade-creating and GATT-consistent force for economic growth. Our hope is that AFTA will be a significant step toward a more broadly-based regional and international dismantling of tariff and non-tariff barriers.

Australia is also evolving, becoming ever more aware of the opportunities which our location in this region provides. As Prime Minister Keating indicated in his introduction to a package of initiatives I launched in March this year called "Australia in Asia: Economies Growing Together", economic growth in Northeast and Southeast Asia - and new complementarities between our economies - has helped boost Australia's own efforts to make our economy more competitive and internationally oriented. The "tyranny of distance" which defined Australia's old view of its place in the world has now become the "advantage of proximity" to some of the world's most dynamically-growing economies.

As you well know, your own economies overall grew twice as fast as those of the rest of the world during the 1980s, and this performance seems likely to be repeated in the 1990s. There are far greater volumes of trade and investment between

ASEAN and Australia than ever before, reflecting both the rapid industrialisation of your economies and the dramatic change which has taken place in the level, composition and pattern of Australia's external trade, including the new complementarities I just mentioned. You may be interested to know that Australia's external focus has changed to such an extent that ASEAN by itself is now a more important export market for Australia than either the United States or the European Community.

Much of this improved performance has been the result of the policies of the Australian Government to build a stronger and more internationally competitive economy - including the substantial macroeconomic reforms and tariff reductions we have implemented over the last decade. It has also resulted from very significant changes in attitude which have occurred in the Australian business community and labour force, resulting in a new appreciation of the enormous stake we have in carrying forward our economic integration with Asia.

The "Australia in Asia" initiatives I launched in March are further evidence of our commitment to that goal. An indication of their importance is that a total of $A61 million has been approved to fund them. It should be noted, however, that they do not spring from a vacuum, but rather build on a solid record of commitment to the region by the Australian Government and on the successes already achieved by Australian business. Their principal objective is to better position Australia to make the most of the opportunities now emerging in Asia - by increasing awareness by Asian entrepreneurs of the benefits of doing business with Australia; expanding our business networks in Asia; and modernising Australia's image. Equally importantly, however, they will also foster a better understanding of Asia in Australia.

For the Australian and Asian economies to continue to grow together, Australia needs to become a more integrated part of Asia' s manufacturing and service sectors. This is more likely to happen if we have an extensive range of business networks, at both the formal and informal levels, through which ideas for new trade and investment can develop in a natural and continuing way.

The Australian Government is boosting development of these networks by introducing a range of programmes - including a Special Business Visits Programme for Asia, which will bring together Australian business leaders and senior economic commentators from the region; an Australian International Management Exchange Plan to enable managers from Asian countries to work with Australian firms on short exchanges; an expanded Network of Australian Science and Technology Counsellors in key Asian cities; and funding for Research and Development Internships to enable Australian research scholars to collaborate with industrial researchers in Asia.

In addition to the foregoing, it is worth recalling that an important element in ASEAN- Australia relations since 1974 has been the highly successful ASEAN-Australia Economic Cooperation Programme (AAECP). We continue to place considerable importance on the Programme and look forward to the successful completion of planning for Phase III (1994-98) under which Australia will allocate $32 million for regional projects and linkages, with an emphasis on involving the private sector in priority areas such as energy, telecommunications, science and technology and the environment.

Against the backdrop of all these developments, in addition to the continuing development of our cooperation in the APEC context which I mentioned on Monday, I think it is readily apparent that ASEAN and Australia have, since we met in Manila last year, moved further down the road toward a sound trading and economic partnership based on the pursuit of common interests. For its part, Australia hopes that this relationship will continue to strengthen and broaden into new areas of economic cooperation.

Another area of fundamental importance to us all at both a regional and global level, is that of the environment. I am delighted with the positive outcome of the meeting earlier this month between Australia and ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment, which established a mechanism to enhance future cooperation on environmental issues. We are pleased to be working with ASEAN to encourage ecologically sustainable development and environmental protection in the region we share.

We in Australia also continue to see considerable potential for the extension of our cooperation to include the areas of culture and information. Activities in these fields have a wide and public impact, and will do much to break down the stereotyped and outdated images which persevere in some sections of our respective communities. There can be no doubt that this is an important and substantial field. The evidence is clear that greater understanding of our diverse cultures complements wider political, economic and security exchanges.

Australia has engaged in substantial cultural exchanges with ASEAN Member Countries for some years now. Institutional linkages are in place through activities such as the Australian artist-in- residence programmes, and there will be strong ASEAN participation in a number of forthcoming cultural activities in Australia, including the inaugural Asia- Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art due to open at the Queensland Art Gallery in September this year. We particularly welcome plans for increased cooperation on public information activities such as through the training of ASEAN public affairs officers in Australia later this year in conjunction with the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI).

The people-to-people links between Australia and ASEAN will be further strengthened by the work we are doing in the field of education. I am very pleased to note that considerable progress has been made in this field since we met last year. Agreement has been reached on ASEAN-Australia cooperation in four broad areas: regional languages, vocational and technical training, institutional links and the mutual recognition of qualifications. Cooperative activities in regional languages has already commenced, with Australia hosting a Regional Workshop on Vocational English Language Training in Jakarta in February, and preparations are well advanced for activities in the three other areas.

We also look forward to further collaboration in science and technology - an area of great importance to our continuing economic prosperity. We were delighted with the strong level of senior ASEAN participation in the 12th meeting of the Association for Science Cooperation in Asia (ASCA) in November last year, which saw a welcome agreement that ASCA has a continuing role in advancing regional science and technology policy issues and exploring the scope for cooperative programmes. And as I have indicated, as part of the "Australia in Asia" initiatives, we propose to further strengthen some of our diplomatic missions in the region by the addition of specialised science and technology positions.

Rapid developments in the field of telecommunications underline the need for ASEAN and Australia to maintain and extend cooperation in this field. Some useful work has been done in Australia in response to ASEAN's identification of telecommunications training as a field of potential collaboration. I hope that this will begin to take a practical form soon.

The list of our mutual achievements to date is already impressive. Australia and ASEAN are well placed to meet the challenges and opportunities which are emerging as we advance into the last decade of this century, and I have no doubt that the further development and extension of the existing network of links between us will prove, over time., to be of great importance to our mutual prosperity and security.