ASEAN, Pacific Alliance to strengthen cooperation

JAKARTA, 3 May 2017 – ASEAN and the Pacific Alliance renewed their commitment to strengthen cooperation between the two regional organisations during the third Meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN and the Group of External Relations of the Pacific Alliance held at the ASEAN Secretariat today.
 

Both sides reiterated the importance of deepening engagement through the implementation of the ASEAN-Pacific Alliance Framework for Cooperation, which was adopted at the 3^rd ASEAN-Pacific Alliance Ministerial Meeting held in New York last September. The Framework for Cooperation prioritised four practical areas of cooperation, namely, economic cooperation; education and people-to-people contacts; science, technology and innovation; and sustainable development.

Recognising the great potential of ASEAN-Pacific Alliance cooperation and noting the positive momentum in the relations, the meeting agreed to develop concrete actions for each of the four priority areas identified and also to step up efforts to promote closer people-to-people ties through various initiatives such as education, tourism, culture and sports.

Towards this end, the meeting welcomed the convening of the ASEAN-Pacific Alliance Global value Chains Seminar in Santiago, Chile on 18 – 19 January 2017 which discussed a number of issues, including the importance of public private partnership and global value chain as well as the promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises developments.

The meeting also exchanged views on the developments in ASEAN and the Pacific Alliance and highlighted the importance of strengthening regional economic integration to boost global economic growth, facilitate equitable development and to bring greater benefits to the people in the face of sluggish economic environment and trends toward protectionism.

The meeting was co-chaired by Ambassador Nguyen Hoanh Nam, Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to ASEAN; and Mr. Pablo Urria, Director for Bilateral International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile; and attended by the Permanent Representatives to ASEAN or their representatives, the Ambassadors of the Pacific Alliance countries to ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat.