ASEAN S&T Ministers convened their 5th Informal Meeting in Manila on 7-8 July 2008. The Informal Meeting, chaired by H.E. Estrella F. Alabastro, was attended by ASEAN S&T Ministers, Ambassadors, S&T Officials from all ASEAN countries. H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, was also in attendance.

The Ministers exchanged views on how S&T cooperation in ASEAN could be strengthened through active participation of all Member States and relevant ASEAN bodies in addressing global and regional concerns such as food security, energy, disaster management through new approaches and modalities of cooperation. Research and Development (R&D) activities must be strengthened with active participation from all S&T Centers of Excellence currently existing in ASEAN and private sector. Research facilities in various ASEAN Member States could be shared to promote R&D work.

Sub-Committees under the Committee on Science and Technology (COST) must be ready to cluster themselves in tackling common issues. At the same time, COST must also be working closely with other ASEAN sectoral bodies dealing with common. In this regard, COST, together with the ASEAN Secretariat, will work on modalities on how inter-sectoral cooperation could be strengthened to ensure that resources could be synergised in implementing joint programmes.

The S&T Ministers also welcomed the initiative of by the Secretary-General of ASEAN to undertake a study on the state of S&T in ASEAN to determine the strengths of its Member States, and develop strategic approaches to ensure that the ASEAN S&T cooperation, with active participation of private sector in pushing R&D and technology commpercialisation, would play a significant role in the ASEAN Community building process. To implement the initiative, the ASEAN Secretariat, in cooperation with the COST Chair, the Philippines, will develop a project proposal for an eventual submission to the Government of Japan for funding support.

To further promote cooperation with Dialogue Partners, the ASEAN Ministers also meet with their counterparts from EU at the ASEAN-EU Informal Ministerial Meeting on S&T Plus Three (IAMMST+EU), the ASEAN+Three Informal Ministerial Meeting (IAMMST+3), and the six Dialogue Partners namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and ROK at the Informal ASEAN S&T Ministerial Consultation with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and ROK. The AMMST Chaiperson’s Statement appears as Appendix 1.

The Informal Ministerial Meetings were preceeded by the Meetings of various Sub-Committees, 1-2 July 2008, 55th Meeting of COST held at the same venue on 3-5 July 2008, the 5th Meeting of the ASEAN-China Joint Science and Committee Meeting (ACJSTC) on 5 July 2008, the ASEAN-EC Consultation Meeting on S&T, 6 July 2008, and the 6th Meeting of the ASEAN-India Working Group on S&T (AIWGST), 6 July 2008.(DT)

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