The Fourth ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting

The Fourth ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting

On Development Planning

Bali, Indonesia, 14-15 July 2005

Chairman’s Statement

1. The Fourth ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Development Planning was held in Bali, Indonesia, on 14-15 July 2005. The Meeting was chaired by Dr. Soekarno Wirokartono, Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs of the National Development Planning Agency, Republic of Indonesia and attended by delegates from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat were also in attendance.

2. The Meeting was formally opened by H.E. Dr. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, State Minister and Chairman of National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS). In her opening statement, she highlighted that enhancing cooperation among the ASEAN Member Countries will create greater opportunities to promote welfare of each of the countries and of the region as a whole. Updating the current planning status in each ASEAN Member Countries is important and will allow the countries to seek possible area of cooperation.

3. The Minister stressed the importance of cooperation among the planning institutions of ASEAN in integrating regional plans into national plans. She encouraged officials of planning institutions to (a) facilitate cooperation among ASEAN Member Countries by making the national development plan or strategies of the respective nations conform with the VAP; and (b) engange in capacity building and closer networking among their institutions.

4. The Meeting discussed the VAP and the various national initiatives in relation thereto and noted the following:

· That several Member Countries had already started integrating the VAP objectives into their own respective national development plans;

· That the VAP had also factored in national priorities of Member Countries in the different sectors;

· That the ownership of the VAP will be important in order for Member Countries to take a role in the monitoring process as well as its implementation of the programmes.

5. Each ASEAN member country has introduced its structure and mechanism, presented their respective national development plans, as well as exchange views, information and best practices on each countries’ development and policies in a linkage with regional issues.

6. The ASEAN member countries also learned how to contribute to the realization of the ASEAN Vision 2020, the Bali Concord II and implementing the VAP.

7. The Meeting agreed that it was important for ASEAN national planning institutions to integrate ASEAN’s goals, objectives and the implementation of the VAP. The Meeting noted that while SOMDP is an important forum to coordinate ASEAN integration activities, ASEAN Member Countries would need to determine their own specific ways of integrating the VAP and coordinating their work with the relevant national sectoral line agencies.

8. The Meeting agreed to encourage the national development planning institutions to join their national delegations attending relevant ASEAN Meetings subject to each Member Country’s domestic practice and process. The Meeting requested the ASEAN Secretariat to convey the wish of the SOMDP to the ASEAN Standing Committee.

9. The Meeting had an extensive discussion on possible future cooperation among the national development planning agencies and agreed in principle to convene regular Meetings of the SOMDP annually with a view to facilitate the integration of ASEAN development plans and targets such as the VAP and its successor plans into national development activities and other development issues.

10. The Meeting also agreed to promote networking and greater understanding as well as to enhance capacity building of development planning institutions through workshops, brainstorming meeting, training activities, exchange of information and best practices. In this light, the Meeting noted that Member Countries which have technical cooperation agreed to offer training programmes to other ASEAN Member Countries.