ASEAN
Secretariat
70-A, Jalan Sisingamangaraja
Jakarta 12110
Indonesia
Postal Add: P.O. Box 2072
Telephone: +62 - 21 - 724 - 3372
Facsimile: +62 - 21 - 739 - 8234
Internet: http://www.asean.or.id/
ESTABLISHMENT AND FUNCTIONS
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established August 8, 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand with the signing of the Bangkok declaration by the five original member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand). On January 8, 1984, Brunei Darussalam was admitted as the sixth member. In July 1995, Vietnam joined ASEAN as the seventh member; Lao People's Democratic Republic and Myanmar joined in July 1997 as the eighth and ninth member, respectively.
The Bangkok Declaration sets out the objectives of the Association as follows:
During the Ministerial Meeting in Jakarta, May 7-9, 1974, it was decided that Jakarta would be the site of the ASEAN Secretariat. The Agreement on the Establishment of the ASEAN Secretariat, adopted at the Heads of Government (Summit) Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, February 23-25, 1976, provides that the office of the Secretary-General shall be held in turn by nationals of the member countries for a two-year period. However, at the 18th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 8-9, 1985, it was agreed that the term of office of the Secretary-General would be for a three-year period beginning July 1986. A Declaration of ASEAN Concord was adopted in February 1976.
An Agreement on ASEAN Preferential Trading Arrangements was signed in Manila on February 24, 1977. The Agreement states that member countries shall cooperate through mutual assistance in respect of basic commodities, particularly food and energy, provision of market support for products of ASEAN industrial projects, expansion of intra-ASEAN trade and increase in the utilization of raw materials available in the contracting states. The arrangements were improved by the Protocol on Improvements on Extension of Tariff Preferences under the ASEAN Preferential Trading Arrangements, Manila, December 15, 1987.
An Agreement on ASEAN Industrial Projects (AIP) and an Agreement on ASEAN Industrial Complementation (AIC) were signed in Kuala Lumpur on March 6, 1980 and in Manila on June 18, 1981, respectively. A new program for ASEAN industrial cooperation was launched with the signing of the Basic Agreement on ASEAN Industrial Joint Venture (BAAIJV) in Jakarta on November 7, 1983. The agreement on AIPs provides the framework for cooperation in the establishment of large-scale industrial projects that meet regional requirements for essential products. Projects currently in operation under the scheme are the Urea Fertilizer Projects in Indonesia and Malaysia. The Agreement on AICs provides for a system of schemes for the manufacture of different products within an industry or industries in the ASEAN countries and their subsequent exchange. A complementation program is currently being implemented in the automotive industry on a brand-to-brand basis. The AIJV Program, on the other hand, seeks to promote industrial joint ventures in the region through the effective consolidation of markets by granting AIJV products preferred access to the markets of participating countries and other privileges.
To further enhance industrial cooperation, the ASEAN Economic Ministers signed the ASEAN Industrial Cooperation (AICO) Scheme Agreement on April 27, 1996 in Singapore. The Scheme is the latest industrial cooperation program of ASEAN to promote the sharing of industrial activities between ASEAN-based companies. It is based on the principles and concepts of the CEPT Scheme for AFTA (as mentioned in later paragraphs). The Scheme minimizes tariff dissimilarities and offers qualified participating companies the immediate benefit of the CEPT tariff rates in the range of zero to five percent.
On March 7, 1980, ASEAN signed an economic cooperation agreement with the European Economic Community, to increase trade and economic links between the two regional groups. An agreement on economic cooperation was also signed with Canada on September 25, 1981. The Agreement provides for industrial, commercial and development cooperation, and transfer of technology.
The Fourth ASEAN Summit, held in Singapore on January 27-28, 1992, agreed to establish the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) within 15 years. At this Summit, the Framework Agreement on Enhancing ASEAN Economic Cooperation and the Agreement on the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme for the ASEAN Free Trade Area were signed. The CEPT Scheme for AFTA was launched in January 1993. This was preceded by a simultaneous announcement by ASEAN Member Countries of their indicative lists of products for inclusion and exclusion in the CEPT in December 1992.
The 26th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, endorsed the Fifth AFTA Council's decision to accelerate the realization of AFTA from 15 to 10 years. The Fifth ASEAN Summit held in Bangkok on December 14-15, 1995 adopted an Agenda for Greater ASEAN Economic Integration. The Summit decided to accelerate and deepen tariff reductions under AFTA, made greater commitments in trade facilitation and launched new initiatives in services, intellectual property, industrial cooperation and investment. The ASEAN Leaders also decided to meet every year, with formal Summits to be held every three years and informal Summits in between. At the Bangkok Summit, the ASEAN Leaders met for the first time with their counterparts from Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, taking ASEAN one step closer to the realization of an ASEAN comprising all the ten Southeast Asian countries. The first informal meeting of the Heads of Government of ASEAN took place in Jakarta on November 30, 1996.
At the Singapore Summit earlier, a decision was also made to use established fora to promote external dialogues on enhancing security in the region. To this end, ASEAN would intensify its external dialogues on political and security matters using ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conferences (ASEAN-PMC). As a first step in implementing the Summit decision, political and security issues were put on the agenda of the 25th AMM/PMC in Manila. As a further step in strengthening the PMC process, Senior Officials from ASEAN, Australia, Canada, the EC, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and United States held a Meeting on May 20-21, 1993 in Singapore. The Meeting agreed to hold consultations at least once a year and adopted a work program to guide their future activities.
As part of confidence-binding measures, ASEAN continued to reaffirm its commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes and conflicts among nations. ASEAN initiated the resolution on the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-East Asia which was adopted by consensus at the 47th session on the UNGA. The Treaty is expected to complement the role of the United Nations as it provides the only regional diplomatic instrument so far for dispute resolution in South-East Asia. Laos and Vietnam acceded to the Treaty at the 25th AMM in July 1992.
ASEAN's initiatives in confidence-building measures took a step forward in 1994 when the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was inaugurated. ARF is a consultative forum for discussing regional and political security cooperation issues. Participants in the inaugural ARF were the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN, the seven Dialogue Partners, three Observers (Vietnam, Laos and Papua New Guinea) and two guests, China and Russia.
COMPOSITION
10 member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam. Cambodia joined ASEAN on April 30, 1999.
Dialogue Partners: Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States.
STRUCTURE
The Meeting of the ASEAN Heads of Government is the highest authority of the Association. The overall coordination is carried out by the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) consisting of the Foreign Ministers of Member Countries.
The ASEAN Standing Committee carries on the work of the Association between Meetings of Foreign Ministers. All ASEAN economic cooperation activities are directed by the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) through the ASEAN Senior Economic Officials (SEOM). Ministerial Meetings of other fields of ASEAN cooperation are held when necessary to draw up programs of cooperation in their respective ministerial areas.
The Secretary-General of ASEAN is appointed on merit by the ASEAN Heads of Government upon recommendation of the AMM. He is accorded ministerial status with an enlarged mandate to initiate, advise, coordinate and implement ASEAN activities. The Secretary-General chairs all ASEAN Standing Committee Meetings, except the first and last.
Political consultation are carried out by Senior Political Officials (SOM) who report to the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM). Economic cooperation is directed by Economic Ministers of Member Countries through the Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM). There are also six non-economic Committees or equivalent bodies: (1) Committee on Culture and Information (COC); (2) Committee on Social Development (COSD); (3) Committee on Science and Technology; (4) ASEAN Senior Officials on Drug Matters (ASOD); (5) ASEAN Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN); and (6) ASEAN Conference on Civil Service Matters (ACCSM).
Since 1978, ASEAN Committees in Third Countries were established in order to safeguard and advance ASEAN interests through joint consultation with the host governments. To date, ASEAN Committees/Groups (composed of heads of diplomatic missions) have been established in: Australia (Canberra), Belgium (Brussels), Canada (Ottawa), France (Paris), Germany (Bonn), India (New Delhi), Japan (Tokyo), Korea (Seoul), New Zealand (Wellington), Switzerland (Geneva), the United Kingdom (London), and the United States (Washington, DC). There are 41 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which are formally affiliated with ASEAN.