Socialist Republic of Vietnam

On 27 July 2001, after two days of extensive work, the Post Ministerial Conference between ASEAN and the Dialogue Partners (PMC) in Hanoi has concluded successfully. During the Conference, ASEAN met the 10 Dialogue Partners jointly and separately (PMC ASEAN+10 and ASEAN+1).

Before the Conference, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Heads of Delegation to the PMC paid a courtesy visit to H.E. Mr. Tran Duc Luong, President of the State of Vietnam. President Tran Duc Luong had cordial talks with the Ministers and Heads of Delegation and wished the Conference to be successful, thus helping to further enhance the effective cooperation between ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners.

During two days, the Conference, chaired by H.E. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam Nguyen Dy Nien, had focused discussions on finding effective measures to further enhance cooperation and support for ASEAN's economic development and integration and for narrowing development gap. The Conference had also reviewed international and regional political, economic, financial and trade issues over the past year.

In his statements at the meetings, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Dy Nien emphasized that : In their efforts, the ASEAN countries pay great attention to the promotion and expansion their cooperation with the dialogue partners. ASEAN's current priority is to speed up the implementation of the Hanoi Plan of Action (HPA) and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI). The Dialogue Partners, international and regional organizations are called to further enhance their assistance for this priority, especially the implementation of the "Hanoi Declaration on Narrowing Development Gap for Closer ASEAN Integration" that has just been adopted by the 34th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM-34).

The Ministers and Heads of Delegation reaffirmed that dialogue and cooperation between ASEAN and the Dialogue Partners is of special importance, in the interest of each and every party. Within this framework, over the past years, a number of programmes and projects have been launched and they have produced practical results.

The ASEAN countries reaffirmed their continued efforts to accelerate its priority programmes as contained in the HPA; emphasized the importance of the assistance by the Dialogue Partners to those priority programmes, especially the IAI for narrowing development gap within ASEAN and between ASEAN and other countries and regions. The Dialogue Partners upheld ASEAN's role and posture in the cause for peace and development in the region and were of the view that a stable and prosperous ASEAN would contribute greatly to peace, stability and development in Asia-Pacific and the world as a whole. They reaffirmed their continued support and assistance to ASEAN in implementing its priorities, especially in socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, human resource development, infrastructure building, prevention and control of drugs and HIV/AIDS.

In the dialogues within the framework of ASEAN+1, the Conference had reviewed the specific programmes and projects cooperated between ASEAN and each respective Dialogue Partner and discussed ways and means to further those programmes and projects. They appreciated the effectiveness of projects for socio-economic development, technical assistance, rural development, environment, customs, crime prevention, etc.; capacity building projects assisted by Japan and ROK; EU's APRIS project; projects for English training and other studies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India