During the year under review, no dialogue meeting was held between ASEAN and Canada. Developments since the Fifth ASEAN - Canada JCC Meeting in Ottawa in April 1988, among others, were: Canadian contributions to the ASEAN Memorandum submitted to Toronto Economic Summit, urging the industrialized countries to adopt measures to redress the deteriorating international economic situation, consultative meeting between the ASEAN-Canada senior officials on the MTN, Cairns Group and Canada-US Free Trade Agreement issues, and issues related to ASEAN - Canada cooperation in investment and commercial and industrial development. The fruitful and smooth economic cooperation between ASEAN and Canada has also been strengthened by the renewal of ASEAN - Canada Economic Cooperation Agreement, which expired on 31 May 1988, for another two years beginning 1 June 1989.
On Canada - ASEAN Investment Promotion, the ASEAN - Canada Business Council (ACBC) had initiated a study on the experience of Canadian investors in the region which would be particularly useful to ASEAN Governments in determining what steps could be taken towards increasing Canadian investment in ASEAN, including the possibility of a need to set up a Joint Canada-ASEAN Investment Committee.
On commercial and industrial cooperation, Canada has looked into the possibility of a separate Trade and Investment Promotion Fund for ASEAN and found it unnecessary to set up such separate fund as there are already several programmes to promote trade and investment between ASEAN and Canada. However, before Canadian funding for ASEAN Trade Promotion Activities expired on 31 March 1989, ASEAN had requested Canada to extend its assistance in this field.
On Development Cooperation, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the ASEAN-Canada Grain Post Harvest Programme (ACGPP) was signed on 8 July 1988 and the Memorandum of Grant Condition (MGC) was signed on 27 May 1988. Canada allocated C$ 3,129,000 for a period of five years. The Memorandum of Understanding of the ASEAN-Canada Cooperation on Ku Band propagation Measurement Programme on Earth Space Paths was signed on 5 June 1989 in Bangkok. Canada would provide C$ 500,000 for the project.
On Human Resources Development, Canada informed ASEAN that a Canadian executing agency had been contracted to carry out the "Canada-ASEAN Regional Training Programme". A Project Design Mission visited ASEAN countries in February 1989 for the following purposes:
a) further define the objectives, nature and scope of the project;
b) develop methods of project operation, both in ASEAN and Canada;
c) provide ASEAN officials with a status report on six short term courses already requested;
d) plan for the implementation of one or two short term training activities before the project is approved. Two such short term activities are likely to be courses in:
(i) Spectrum Management Systems (SMS);
and
(ii) the Use of Computers for Commercial
and Administrative Applications in Telecommunications
(Computer and Telecom).
In addition to the two projects mentioned above, Canada also agreed to support the following projects under the umbrella of HRD Scholarship Fund:
-
Incoming ASEAN Standards Mission;
-
ASEAN Trade Statistics Tour;
-
Training Course on Management of Machine Readable Records; and
-
Training Intership on Audio-Visual Records Management;
-
Training Course in Computer Application;
-
ASEAN Training of Trainers in Preventive Drug Education.
The project on ASEAN Trade Statistics Tour was completed in September 1988.
Canada had taken the initiative to decentralise ASEAN - Canada management system by establishing the "Canada - ASEAN Centre" in the region to facilitate its project design and administration process. The Centre would be based in Singapore and become fully operational by July 1989.
On Second ASEAN Science and Technology Week (SASTW), Canada provided a funding of C$ 121 000 for the project which was held on 30 January - 4 February 1989 in Manila. The funding of C$ 50,000 was also provided by Canada for the ASEAN Food Conference held in October 1988 in Bangkok.
For more information, please refer to the project details
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