APR News

ASEAN, in cooperation with China and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will hold a symposium in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 20-21 August 2018 to push for local implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the region. Dubbed as the “Symposium on Localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Realising Poverty Eradication,” it will elaborate ways to mainstream the SDGs at regional and sub-national levels in the context of complementarities between the ASEAN Vision 2025 and the SDGs.

ASEAN celebrated its 51st anniversary at the ASEAN Secretariat with a series of community and youth engagement events held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 8 August 2018.
The celebration was highlighted by a commemorative ceremony in the morning attended by Foreign Minister of Indonesia Retno Marsudi, Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning of Indonesia Sofyan Djalil, representatives of ASEAN Member States, Dialogue Partners, the diplomatic corps, civil society, international organisations, and entities associated with ASEAN.

The Myanmar government reveals they have ditched the demand for tourists to possess US$1,000 in cash upon arrival, a week after the initial announcement was made, after the backlash from businesses.
The immigration ministry issued a policy last week (July 24) which requires Japanese, Chinese and South Korean visitors to bring US$1,000 in cash when they enter Myanmar under new visa arrangements. But the demand was dropped in the following week: two days ago, the hotel and tourism ministry announced a “suspension” of that rule.

On July 18, 2018, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with India.
Stability-oriented macroeconomic policies and progress on structural reforms continue to bear fruit. Following disruptions related to the November 2016 currency exchange initiative and the July 2017 goods and service tax (GST) rollout, growth slowed to 6.7 percent in FY2017/18, but a recovery is underway led by an investment pickup.

On July 18, 2018, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with India.
Stability-oriented macroeconomic policies and progress on structural reforms continue to bear fruit. Following disruptions related to the November 2016 currency exchange initiative and the July 2017 goods and service tax (GST) rollout, growth slowed to 6.7 percent in FY2017/18, but a recovery is underway led by an investment pickup.

The Russia–ASEAN meeting was held in Singapore on 2 August 2018. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov participated in the meeting from the Russian side.

Close to a hundred representatives from the region’s technology business incubators and start-ups convened at the 1st meeting of the ASEAN Business Incubator Network (ABINet) Project on 2-3 August 2018 in Jakarta.
Other representatives from Indonesian Research, Technology, and Higher Education Ministry and Communications and Information Technology Ministry also attended this meeting which was hosted by the Indonesian Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Ministry.
The ABINet project is an initiative of the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises supported by the Government of Japan through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund.

WTO members have accepted Kazakhstan’s invitation to host, in Astana, the organization’s Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) to be held in 2020. The decision was taken by consensus at the General Council meeting on 26 July 2018 and marks the first time a Ministerial Conference is to be organized in Central Asia.
The conference will be held in June 2020 with exact dates to be determined. It will be attended by trade ministers and other senior officials from the organization’s 164 members.
Kazakhstan joined the WTO in 2015.

The United States has requested WTO dispute consultations with Canada, China, the European Union, Mexico and Turkey regarding additional duties imposed by the five WTO members on imports of certain US products. The request was circulated to WTO members on 19 July.

The Ministers from the 16 RCEP Participating Countries (RPCs) attended the 5th RCEP Intersessional Ministerial Meeting held on 1 July 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. The Ministers discussed the developments since the 4th RCEP Intersessional Ministerial Meeting on 3 March 2018 in Singapore, including the outcomes of the 22nd round of negotiations held on 28 April-8 May 2018 also in Singapore; the intersessional meetings of selected working groups and sub-working groups; as well as the 4th RCEP Intersessional TNC and Related Meetings held on 25-29 June 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.