The secretariat offices of Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) set up initiative to boost the trade between ASEAN countries and countries joined in Asia Pacific Economic (APEC) forum, a local media reported here on Friday. The initiative to facilitate the trade between ASEAN and APEC countries was among the cooperation programs initiated by senior executives of both secretariat offices who met in
ASEAN Secretariat office in Jakarta on Thursday.
"We agreed that the synergy between ASEAN and APEC will open a lot of opportunities
for collaboration and cooperation. There will be more opportunities for the two regions to
make cooperation on," ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan was quoted as saying in the ASEAN Secretariat's official website.
Besides the trade sector, the two secretariat offices have identified other sectors to be
worked on in their initial cooperation. Those sectors are small- and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), disaster mitigation, standards and conformance, supply chain connectivity, health
and project management, the Antara news agency reported. Surin received Thursday the courtesy visit of APEC Secretariat delegation led by its executive director Michael Tay.
Surin warmly welcomed the initiative for closer cooperation between the two secretariat offices and is looking forward to expanding the cooperation in various sectors based on mutual benefit principle.