PRESS RELEASES


 

ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and Related Meetings

11 September 2014


    This year’s ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and Related Meetings were held from 25 August to 28 August in Naypyidaw, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Head of Japanese delegation was Mr. Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, who participated in Japan-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM-METI), the ASEAN+3 Economic Ministers’ Meeting, the East Asia Summit (EAS) Economic Ministers’ Meeting, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial Meeting, and the Mekong-Japan Economic Ministers Meeting.


    In the Japan-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting, the ministers agreed to add new issues to the ASEAN-Japan 10-Year Strategic Economic Cooperation Roadmap, which was concluded in August 2012, including efforts for fostering new industrial fields, intellectual property, and financing SMEs, and to strengthen cooperation. In the EAS Economic Ministers’ Meeting, the ministers agreed to complete the analysis of industrial clusters, which is operated by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), before the next Economic Ministers’ Meeting in the summer of 2015. In the Mekong-Japan Economic Ministers Meeting, the member countries confirmed that they will complete the Mekong Industry Development Vision, a strategy for enhancing the complementary relationship among the countries in the sub-region, namely, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar, as well as for deepening the industrial collaboration between Japan and the Mekong countries, before the next Economic Ministers Meeting to be held in the summer of 2015. In the RCEP Ministerial Meeting, many member countries agreed to exchange initial offers concerning trade in goods before the next negotiation meeting to be held in December this year. In addition, the ministers advanced discussions concerning approaches to the liberalization of trade in services and investment, and they agreed that they should add the new issues of disciplines concerning e-commerce and SMEs to the scope of negotiations.


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