1 – Political dialogue:
ASEM members have conducted political dialogues at Summit, Ministerial and SOM levels on international and regional issues of common interest with a view to deepening mutual understanding between Asia and Europe. The dialogues deal with a wide range of matters from regional developments and the world issues like the Middle East situation, international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction to development, social and rule-of-law issues.
2 – Economic and Financial Cooperation:
ASEM economic cooperation focuses on three areas, namely trade, investment and finance. With an aim to reach a closer economic partnership, the Fourth ASEM Summit (September 2002) decided to establish the ASEM Task Force for Closer Economic Partnership, which has became functional since March 2003, to study and make recommendations to the ASEM 5 Summit on concrete measures to strengthen trade, financial and investment cooperation between the two continents.
- Trade cooperation is promoted through the “Trade Facilitation Action Plan” (TFAP). Two way investment flows is promoted through the “Investment Promotion Action Plan” (IPAP), with the assistance of investment experts, (the investment contact points network (ICP) was formed in July 2003 to substitute the Investment Experts Group). The Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF) an important channel of communication and interaction among businesses of the two continents is held annually.
- On financial cooperation, at Financial Ministers’ and Deputy Finance Ministers’ Meetings, attention has been paid to exchange of views on international financial architecture, combating money laundering and strengthening cooperation in the field of customs. One successful example of the financial cooperation is the UK-initiated establishment of the ASEM Trust Fund (ATF) at the World Bank. The purpose of the ATF is to assist seven of the ten Asian members in overcoming the 1997 Asian financial-monetary crisis. To date, Vietnam has received 15 technical assistance projects from the ATF with the total value of over US$ 10 million, ranking third among the Fund’s recipients. Attention has also been given to countering money-laundering (the Second ASEM Summit endorsed an anti-money laundering initiative, and a three-year project sponsored by the Department for International Development of the UK, the European Commission and Thailand is being implemented in Asian countries). In customs cooperation, in addition to biannual ASEM Customs Directors General and Commissioners Meetings, ASEM has set up two Working Groups on customs procedures to facilitate trade between the two continents.
In addition, the First ASEM High-level Conference on Agricultural Cooperation was held in November 2003 to discuss ways to strengthen ASEM cooperation in agriculture. The discussions focused on (i) agricultural policies, agricultural trade and investment, (ii) sustainable agricultural development, (iii) farm produce quality and food safety, and (iv) bio-technology in agriculture.
3 – Cooperation in other areas:
- Cooperation activities in these areas have been most successful, helping deepen the mutual understanding between the peoples of Asia and Europe.
- Most notable are the activities under the Asia-Europe Foundation, established in February 1997 in Singapore, to promote cultural, intellectual and people-to-people exchange. To date, over 200 projects have been developed, involving more than 5,000 Asian and European citizens.
- ASEM has also established the Asia-Europe Environmental Technology Center in Thailand, and the First and Second Environment Ministers’ Meeting were held in Beijing in January 2002 and in Italy in October 2003 respectively.
- In science and technology, the First ASEM Science and Technology Ministers’ Meeting was held in Beijing in October 1999, where ASEM members pledged to forge closer cooperation in science and technology in order to facilitate balanced and sustainable development and to reduce the digital divide.
- To increase dialogue, cooperation and exchange among the extremely diverse cultures and civilizations of ASEM members, the First ASEM Ministerial Conference on Cultures and Civilizations was held for the first time on 3-4 December 2003 in Beijing. ASEM members agreed to promote dialogue on this important area and worked out measures to strengthen cooperation and exchange among cultures and civilizations.
- In healthcare, sharing the concern of member countries in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak, China organized the Seminar on Management of Public Health Emergency in October 2003. Earlier, in 1999, Vietnam proposed the first ASEM initiative in this area (Combination of traditional and modern medicine for public healthcare).
- ASEM members are also interested in cooperation in law enforcement, countering transnational crimes and combating trafficking in women and children.
For the past eight years, the ASEM process has become a bridge spanning Asia and Europe. Built upon three cooperation pillars, namely political dialogue, economic cooperation and cooperation in other areas, ASEM has helped deepen mutual understanding and strengthened cooperation between the two continents. On that foundation, Asia-Europe cooperation will continue to prosper in the future to become an essential component of the Asia-Europe-America relations.