ASEAN functional cooperation not for dialog partners

JAKARTA (JP): While functional cooperation has been given greater priority by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), its officials do not expect it to become a criterion for accepting new dialog partners.

Functional cooperation has been a part of the ASEAN bureaucracy since its formation in 1967. At the fifth ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in December 1995, members decided to give functional cooperation greater importance.

Functional cooperation under the ASEAN covers science and technology, culture and information, drugs and narcotics control, the environment, social development and the civil service.

ASEAN is a socio-political organization which comprises, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Indonesia's Director General for ASEAN Affairs, Rahardjo Djamtomo, told The Jakarta Post that there was no plan to use functional cooperation as a criterion for new dialog partners.

He explained that dialog partners already cooperated through social development.

"We don't want to be dependent on them," Rahardjo remarked, in reference to ASEAN dialog partners from the West.

ASEAN has 10 dialog partners including Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Rahardjo said that ASEAN officials were working to create a framework which would provide a better focus and closer cooperation among ASEAN countries.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, in his closing statement at the ASEAN Standing Committee (ASC) meeting yesterday, said that functional cooperation should be seen as important as political and economic cooperation.

He said the ASC had recommended that the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, which starts here tomorrow, adopt a framework which includes the theme of "shared prosperity through human development, technological competitiveness and social cohesiveness."

Alatas said the ASC had urged ministers to focus their attention on program priorities, funding requirements, potential funding sources and institutional arrangements including the strengthening of the Functional Cooperation bureau in the ASEAN Secretariat.

"We should impart synergy into action plans for functional cooperation by systemizing them so they complement and reinforce each other," he said.

Functional cooperation is expected to give priority to the development of human resources to further strengthen ASEAN identity and awareness. (mds)