Participants at the meeting (Photo: VNA)Jakarta (VNA) – The 14th meeting of the ASEAN-Japan Joint Cooperation Committee (AJJCC) took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, on March 11 underthe co-chair of Ambassador Tran Duc Binh, head of the VietnamesePermanent Mission to ASEAN, and Japanese Ambassador to ASEAN Chiba Akira.
ASEAN member nations appreciated Japan's effective cooperation and support for thebloc for many years through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) with atotal grant of nearly 85 million USD by December 31, 2019.
Thetwo sides highly evaluated positive results the two sides achieved inpolitical-security, economic and socio-cultural cooperation.
Theyaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen the ASEAN-Japan StrategicPartnership and effectively implement joint statements signed by theirhigh-ranking leaders.
Accordingly,ASEAN and Japan will prioritise expanding cooperation on infrastructuredevelopment through implementing the ASEAN-Japan Transport Partnership (AJTP), negotiatingthe ASEAN-JapanAir Services Agreement and creating connectivitybetween implementing Japan’s Expanded Partnership for QualityInfrastructure” initiative and the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 (MPAC2025).
Thetwo sides will also focus resources on comprehensively implementing the remaining action lines of the 2017 RevisedImplementation Plan of the Vision Statement on ASEAN-Japan Friendshipand Cooperation, and the ASEAN-Japan 10-Year Strategic Economic Cooperation Roadmap, especially activities and projects tosupport the bloc to successfully implement its goals of building the ASEANCommunity, narrowing the development gap, cooperating in human resourcedevelopment, facilitating the operation of micro-, small- and medium-sizedenterprises, building smart city, developing digital economy and energy,managing natural disasters and adapting to climate change.
They emphasisedthe need to complete procedures to soon validate the first protocol amending the ASEAN-Japan ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership Agreement, towards further expanding investment,trade and service cooperation between the two sides, as well as quickening thesigning of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2020.
Japan highlyvalued and supported Vietnam's priorities in the ASEAN presidency for 2020, andstressed the implementation of the three orientations for developing the ASEAN-JapanStrategic Partnership and Cooperation on human development, institutionalbuilding and intellectual accumulation.
The JapaneseGovernment decided to provide an additional 9.5 million USD for the JAIF in 2020, and 5.11million USD for the Japan-East Asia Network ofExchange for Students and Youths (JENESYS) programme in 2020;as well as mobilise 3 billion USD from the public and private sector in2020-2021, including 1.2 billion USD for loans and investment abroad for ASEANthrough the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Japanis now ASEAN's fourth largest trade partner with two-way trade in 2018 hitting 231.7billion USD. With its 21-billion-USD investment in ASEAN in 2018, Japan is the thirdbiggest foreign direct investor of the group.
The Japan-ASEAN Technical Cooperation Agreement (TCA) signed in May 2019 was carried out through JICA in the2019-2020 fiscal year with a training course on strengthening cyber securitycapacity, and three others scheduled for 2020 on developing regional sustainablelogistics systems, strategic seaport management and marine waste treatment.
The ASEAN-Japan sportscooperation has been strengthened through the ASEAN-Japan Actions on Sports in2019-2020. Japan has also actively cooperated with and supported ASEANto implement the ASEAN Agreement on DisasterManagement and Emergency Response (AADMER) work programme 2016-2020; and financedprogrammes of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistanceon Disaster Management (AHA Centre)./.
VNA
