ASEAN agrees to liberalize services

ASEAN agrees to liberalize services

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
has agreed to liberalize trade in services among its nine members
and set up a foundation to help its people help themselves.

Copies of the agreements, which are to be signed by top ASEAN
officials at their three-day summit that opened last night, were
obtained by The Associated Press.

The protocol on services, to take effect no later than March
31, is based on negotiations that followed a framework agreement
signed at the ASEAN summit in Bangkok two years ago.

It sets out a schedule for specific commitments that each
member country will undertake in extending preferential treatment
in services to other countries in the region on a most-favored-
nation basis.

The new ASEAN Foundation, to be based in Jakarta, will promote
human resources development to enable the region's 500 million
residents "to realize their full potential and capacity to
contribute to progress," the memorandum of understanding says.

The foundation -- which will have a board of directors,
executive director, council of advisers and other staff -- will
receive funds from members who wish to join, along with ASEAN
"dialog partners," private corporations and others.

The money will be used to:

* organize and support activities to promote education,
training, health and cultural life.

* provide fellowships to and support exchanges of ASEAN youth
and students.

* promote collaborative work among academics, professionals
and scientists.

* provide assistance to "uplift the social condition" of ASEAN
residents.

Leaders from the nine ASEAN members arrived yesterday.
Conspicuously absent will be Indonesia's President Soeharto, the
oldest ASEAN leader and sole survivor of the five heads of state
who ordered the founding of ASEAN 30 years ago. Soeharto is
staying away for health reasons.

Three non-ASEAN countries invited to attend the commemorative
summit also arrived yesterday. They were Chinese President Jiang
Zemin and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.

Jiang discussed the regional financial turmoil with his host
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday.

Jiang, the highest-level Chinese official ever to meet ASEAN
leaders, was accompanied on a special flight by his wife Wang
Yeping and officials including Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and
special assistant Zeng Qinghong.

Jiang held a one-hour discussion with Mahathir, and
discussions were "100 percent on currency," Malaysian Foreign
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters.

"Both agreed that the situation is serious enough and there
has to be some kind of cooperation that can be worked out to help
the ailing economies to recover despite the fact that we all know
that there is already the IMF helping them," Abdullah said.

Separately Hashimoto said Japan would continue to offer
support to Asian nations, but only within an international
framework in conjunction with the IMF.

"Our basic stance remains unchanged...we must work within an
international framework or else it won't be effective," Hashimoto
told reporters during a flight to Malaysia.

Hashimoto said while the ASEAN talks could touch upon a wide
range of topics, the main focus would be on how Japan could
contribute to helping the region's battered economies, and to
reconfirm Japan's support for the framework agreed in Manila in
November.

But ASEAN officials stopped short of endorsing a plan,
advocated by Mahathir, to establish a standby fund independent of
the IMF and its austerity programs, on grounds that it would
undercut the IMF and weaken the region's desire to take strong
corrective action.