APR News

In celebrating the women’s month in March, the ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Network (AWEN) and the Women’s Business Council of the Philippines (Womenbizph) brought together some 200 women leaders—many from ASEAN—for a two-day conference focusing on opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the Southeast Asian region to grow their business through the use of technology and innovation.
Held on 16-17 March 2017 at the Microtel Mall of Asia (MOA), Manila, the gathering is tagged “Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (S.T.E.A.M.) Ahead in ASEAN”.
Currently, AWEN has a network of almost a hundred organisations in the ten Member States of ASEAN as each country has a federation of women’s economic groups.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team, led by Ana Corbacho, visited Bangkok from February 16–March 1, 2017, for the 2017 Article IV Consultation discussions. The team exchanged views on recent economic developments and the outlook with officials in the government, the Bank of Thailand (BOT), and other public institutions. It also met with representatives of the private sector and academics. At the conclusion of the visit, Ms. Corbacho issued the following statement:
“The Thai economy continued to recover in 2016. GDP growth reached 3.2 percent, mainly driven by exports of services and public investment. Average headline inflation was 0.2 percent, below the target band for the second year in a row, reflecting low energy prices and persistently weak core inflation. Amid subdued import growth, the external current account strengthened further. Financial markets were highly resilient in the face of external and domestic shocks.

Ethiopia conveyed its keen interest to promote cooperative relationship with ASEAN and ASEAN Member States in areas of mutual interests. The areas include trade, investment, air linkages and tourism. This message was conveyed by the first Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to ASEAN Mr. Arega Hailu Teffera, during the presentation of his Letter of Credence to Secretary-General of ASEAN Le Luong Minh at the ASEAN Secretariat on March 14, 2017.

The 15th Meeting of the ASEAN-Russia Joint Cooperation Committee took place on 8 March 2017 at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. Ambassador Latsamy Keomany, Permanent Representative of Lao PDR to ASEAN and Ambassador of Russia to ASEAN Mikhail Galuzin co-chaired the meeting.
The meeting focused on the implementation of the outcomes of the Commemorative Summit on the occasion of the 20thAnniversary of ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Partnership held on 19-20 May 2016, in Sochi, Russia. In particular, the meeting looked at the Sochi Declaration and Comprehensive Plan of Action to Promote Cooperation between ASEAN and Russia 2016-2020 in view of moving towards a strategic partnership for mutual benefit.

Senior officials from ASEAN and Japan met in Bandar Seri Begawan for the 32nd ASEAN-Japan Forum on March 2, 2017. They reaffirmed the importance of the long-standing partnership between both sides. Japan expressed its strong support for ASEAN’s efforts to promote peace and stability in the region, including the central role played by ASEAN in regional mechanisms.
Japan reiterated its commitment to continue support for ASEAN’s integration and community-building efforts through its development assistance and capacity-building programmes. ASEAN-Japan cooperation covers many sectors including support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), disaster management, health care, education, human rights, youth development, cultural heritage, and sports.

The EEC continues to work on the creation of comfortable conditions for the pharmaceutical business in the EAEU countries. In 2017-2018, 67 additional documents will be prepared for the regulation of the common market of medicines. This was stated by the EEC Board Member - Minister in charge of technical regulation Valery Koreshkov at the opening the EAEU session in the framework of the Pharmaceutical forum of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Speaking with the report on the regulation of the common market of medicines, the EEC Minister drew attention of the forum participants to the fact that the profile working group of the Commission finalized a number of draft documents of the so-called third level. These include requirements for water used for pharmaceutical production, guideline for validation of production processes, requirements for quality indicators for modified forms of medicines and some others.

The EEC Board approved the list of priority directions of cooperation of the EAEU Member States in order to accelerate technological modernization and innovation activity of organizations of the Member States.
The document prepared by the EEC Industrial Policy Department is aimed at developing cooperation in 19 scientific, technological, and innovative areas. These include such priority areas as biotechnology, development of new medicines and treatments for cancer, including using stem cells, development of electric transportation, development of absolutely innovative devices and machines based on high class multiloop lever mechanisms. The Commission also proposes that the EAEU countries switch from microelectronics to nanoelectronics and optoelectronics, quantum computers, development of materials, technologies and special technological equipment for manufacture of products for nanoelectronics, nanosystem and microsystem technologies, and solid-state electronics.

On March 1, 2017 at the Eurasian Economic Commission, the EEC Board Member - Minister in charge of integration and macroeconomics Tatyana Valovaya and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Chile in the Russian Federation Rodrigo Jose Nieto Maturan discussed the current state and prospects of development of trade and economic partnership of the EAEU Member States and the Republic of Chile. Participants of the meeting expressed their satisfaction with the pace of cooperation development between the EAEU and Chile.

The Eurasian Economic Commission established a list of priority projects to be implemented by the EAEU States and support the formation of the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB). 39 of them are for construction of new roads and renovation of the existing ones, creation of transport and logistics centers, development of key transport hubs, etc. This was reported by the Director of the Transport and Infrastructure Department of the EEC Yerzhan Nurakhmetov in the framework of commemorative events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Inland Transport Committee of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE-ITC) in Geneva.
Yerzhan Nurakhmetov noted the ongoing work on the development and establishment of new transport routes between Europe and Asia.
"The establishment of such routes will halve the average time of delivery of goods. In this context, we see great opportunities from the cooperation with China," said the EEC representative. Together, we will now proceed to the implementation of the pairing of the EAEU and SREB. In the field of transport and infrastructure, we have already developed criteria for projects to be included in the draft "road map" for interaction with China. Together with the ministries of transport of the Union States, we defined the scope of interaction in part technological, regulatory, and tariff regulation, agreed a list of Eurasian transport routes and a list of priority projects, 39 of them relate to the construction of new and the renovation of the existing roads, creation of transportation and logistics centers, development of key transportation hubs.
In particular, a large-scale project for the construction of new roads within the international transport route Western Europe-Western China 8445 km long is almost finished. In addition, high-speed railway line Moscow-Kazan should be built, where trains will operate at speeds up to 400 km/h; traveling from Moscow to Kazan will take 3.5 hours. At the moment, mechanisms for attracting Chinese investments to this project are being discussed.

At a bilateral meeting in Geneva, the EEC Board member - Minister in charge of energy and infrastructure Adamkul Zhunusov and the Minister of roads and urban development of Iran Abbas Ahundi discussed plans for cooperation in the fields of transport and infrastructure. They discussed simplification of procedures for the crossing of the border between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran, providing favorable conditions for transit and development of transport corridors.