ASEAN forms technology fund

ASEAN forms technology fund

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Southeast Asian nations on Saturday agreed to raise US$ 10 million for more cooperative science projects at a meeting for science and technology ministers from the region.

The ministers from nations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, met in Genting Highlands, a hill resort in Malaysia, and agreed that the money will be used to boost the ASEAN Science Fund initiated in 1989.

Malaysian science, technology and environment minister Law Hieng Ding said strengthening the fund was part of an overall effort toward better science and technology cooperation in the region.

Law said the meeting assessed the science and technology cooperation in the region. It also discussed goals for the new century and mapped out the required strategy to attain those goals, taking into consideration the ASEAN Vision 2020.

The ASEAN Vision 2020 describes as its goal a technologically competitive Southeast Asia with an adequate pool of qualified and trained people and strong networks of technological institutions.