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ASEAN
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2000-06-09 18:26:00-04
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Japanese-Asean Fund to be established
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Japanese PM Mori pledges to set up fund to help Asean nations narrow economic gaps between members
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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori pledged yesterday to set up a fund in July to help Asean members promote exchanges and cooperation in order to narrow economic gaps among its members. The announcement of the Japan-Asean General Exchange Fund came as leaders of Asean countries were in Japan attending then funeral for the late prime minister Keizo Obuchi. All of the plans that Mori announced will be presented to the G-8 summit, which will be held in Okinawa from July 21-23. Asean members listed five issues that they want Japan to discuss with the other G-8 members. The issues are: promotion of further reforms in international financial architecture, seeking an Asian regional mechanism for use at times of economic crisis, expression of confidence in recovering Asian economies, the further opening of markets in advanced nations and addressing the interest of developing nations to insure a balanced round of multilateral trade talks under the World Trade Organization. Additionally, Mori has unveiled a comprehensive aid package to help developing nations handle the information technology revolution. Areas of investment would be policy-making, human resources, information infrastructure and official development assistance. In late July in Bangkok at the Asean Regional Forum, the Japan-Asean General Exchange Fund will be signed. The fund is aimed at helping Asean bridge the economic cleft between the four latecomers, Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Vietnam and the rest of the Asean. Japan has already designated US$2.5 million for the fund. Potential projects for the four countries include: building information networks and promoting English language and other educational programs.
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