Background
document
ASEM 1998 - 2000
27. In the two years since ASEM2, there have been numerous meetings and initiatives, again taking place under several main headings of the Asia-Europe Co-operation Framework. These headings are: ASEF, TFAP, IPAP, AEBF, Senior Officials Meeting on Trade and Investment(SOMTI), and the Young Leaders Symposium(YLS).
28. The YLS was a joint Japan-Austria initiative to bring together young leaders from ASEM member countries, from fields such as business, politics, art and academia. Initially spelled out in the Bangkok Summit as a ¡°Davos type¡± gathering, there have been four Symposiums to date, the third in Korea in 1999, and the latest held in Ireland in June this year. The theme for this meeting was "The knowledge society", and the previous three have been concerned with similar, future-oriented themes. The criteria is chosen by the host, and in the case of the Irish meeting, "delegates are young leaders who have reached middle to senior management level positions in politics, economics, business, banking, public administration, media, science and education."1 There were no trade union delegates at this meeting.
29. Since London, SOMTI have held 3 meetings: Singapore February 1999, Brussels July 1999, and Seoul May 2000. Among other things, at these meetings, ministers have discussed the WTO, increased integration between the business community and the official ASEM process, and the implementation of the TFAP and IPAP. The discussions on the WTO prior to Seattle focused on the need for full implementation of existing commitments, and the need to make future discussions as broad based as possible, in order that there be a balance of interest for all WTO members. This was an underestimation of the divergence among members, as is shown by a European commission discussion paper -drafted for SOMTI6 in Seoul in May 20002- which realised that all the priority issues of each member must be addressed for consensus to be reached.
30. In Singapore (February 1999), SOMTI approved, as an official element of the IPAP, a Decision Makers' Forum organised jointly between the Korean Federation of Industries and the AEBF, to be held in conjunction with the AEBF meeting in October 1999. In Brussels (July 1999), SOMTI accepted the suggestion that AEBF attend the upcoming Economic Ministers' meeting, and brief the Ministers on AEBF activities. AEBF experts are increasingly requested to make contributions to SOMTI efforts, and a division of labour between the two is being effected.
31. In terms of overseeing TFAP, SOMTI arranged a series of seminars on key trade issues, such as standards conformity, intellectual property rights, customs procedures, and international technology transfer. In Brussels, they decided to review the TFAP schedule to focus more concrete steps toward removing trade barriers. One specific target suggested by the EU was the removal of non-tariff barriers, and SOMTI set this as a priority for the next Economic Ministers meeting and for ASEM3.
32. The implementation of IPAP has taken place in two major initiatives: investment promotion, and improvement of investment regulations. Investment is promoted by networking, as through the above-mentioned Decision-Makers Roundtable and inter-regional exchanges, and through the provision of information. The Decision-Makers Roundtable is an annual event, at which top executives can discuss investment environments, voice concerns and make suggestions. The Virtual Information Exchange, a website set up by the European Commission, is intended to be a central database for investment information regarding the ASEM member countries.
33. The Independent Expert Group (IEG) was set up by SOMTI as an aid in the implementation of IPAP. Its main purpose is as an interface with the AEBF, to solicit private sector expertise and perspective on investment regulations and barriers. It has compiled a portfolio of investment best practices from member countries, as a model for comparison with existing regulatory frameworks. This list is included as an annex, and is discussed below, in para.54. SOMTI considers this liaison with the AEBF an asset, and succeeded in having the Economic Ministers Meeting in Berlin in October 1999 extend the IEG mandate another two years.
34. The AEBF has held its fourth and fifth annual forums since London, the latter at the end of September 2000. At AEBF4, in October1999, the Forum operated by way of six seminars, on the following topics: trade, investment, financial services, infrastructure: (telecommunications and information technology), industrial technology co-operation, and small and medium enterprises. Among the recommendations were the following:
The Trade seminar suggested Mutual Recognition Agreements for standards conformity, and pointed to the importance of streamlining visa and residence permits for business travellers.The Investment recommendations all dealt with efficiency, transparency, predictability and stability of various factors.The Financial Services seminar recommended the adoption of the Basle Principles for Effective Banking Supervision, more dialogue between debtors and creditors to avoid recourse to litigation, and effort to enable SME's to obtain better access to financial resources.The Telecommunications seminar recommended liberalisation of telecom market entry, exchange of experts between regions, and free consulting programs for SME's.The Technology Co-operation seminar suggested that member countries should take a proactive role in learning about other members' business and national cultures, in order that technology transfer become smoother.The SME seminar recommended that patents be recognised across ASEM.
35. AEBF5, recently held in Vienna, tabled many of the same recommendations as listed above, with additional focus on Public-Private-Partnerships on infrastructure projects, and health care issues. It expressed concern with a misrepresentation of PPP's as privatisation, and suggested that senior ASEM officials participate in seminars to disseminate information regarding PPP's. The meeting's discussion of health care included recognition that conventional pricing of pharmaceuticals excludes large populations in need of those medicines. The AEBF rejects alternatives such as differential pricing and parallel importation and reference pricing, in favour of licensing agreements between the Intellectual Property Rights owners and local manufacturers. The AEBF also called for governments to invest more in education and training, to address a shortage of skilled workers.
36. The Asia Europe Foundation(ASEF), set up at the Bangkok Summit as a forum for intellectual debate on regional and international issues, and based in Singapore, has played host to a range of social and cultural topics since ASEM2, of which the most important to unions was a seminar on labour relations held in the Hague in October 1998. This is discussed in more detail below. There have also been colloquia on human rights, meetings of publishers and journalists, a meeting on education in the 21st century, a workshop on research links, and various cultural exhibitions on art, science and museums.
1.
www.irlgov.ie/iveagh/aeylsiv/
2. http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/bilateral/asem/asem_nr.htm
© Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung I October 2000
Draft
statement
to
ASEM 3