Address by Mr Tom Kitt TD, Minister for Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs at the ASEAN Ambassadors Official Visit to Dublin 18 September 2001

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very honoured to be here today to speak to this distinguished gathering. I know that the ASEAN Ambassadors accredited to Ireland have been coming here as a group for some years now, but this is the first time that a seminar of this nature has been organised. Today's meetings will see, I am sure, a level of interaction and debate amongst some of Ireland's most dynamic businesses and the representatives of a region which is increasingly important in world trade. I believe that the result can only be a heightened awareness of the significant opportunities for economic cooperation between Ireland and South East Asia.

The list of speakers today gives me a great deal of hope for the future development of our relations. Senior diplomats, representatives of the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation, representatives of Enterprise Ireland and of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland will speak to you, and I hope that as a result you will all go home this evening with a better idea of what can be achieved.

Trade between Ireland and South East Asia has been growing strongly in the past few years. Last year, merchandise trade between Ireland and the ten countries of ASEAN grew by 19% to total £4.4 billion ( € 5.58b ). This was made up of an increase of 17% in Ireland's exports to ASEAN, and an increase of 21% in Ireland's imports from ASEAN.

In the first half of this year, I am pleased to note that Irish exports grew by 59% over the same period in 2000, and our imports from ASEAN have grown by 7%, which means that our deficit with you is coming down.

These figures highlight two things: first of all, our trade is going in the right direction, upwards.

Secondly, however, they indicate that there is further room for improvement. Anthony Courtney, Enterprise Ireland's Director for ASEAN, who is based in Kuala Lumpur, is with us here today, and his ideas and activities will play a large part in bringing about the increased relations which we all want.

Today's seminars have been sponsored by the Government's Asia Strategy Committee. This Committee has been active over the past two years to increase the awareness of Ireland as a source of goods and services in Asia, but also to increase awareness amongst Irish companies of the opportunities in Asia.

The two seminars which will take place today show both elements of this activity. This morning's seminar has been organised by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland and IBEC as part of a series of activities to improve their links with key decision makers in Asia. Their representatives have visited Asia to develop links with Chambers of Commerce over the past number of months. And today, they have decided to host this seminar to ensure that the links between Irish business and the representatives of key Asian markets are as well developed as possible."This afternoon, the Irish Exporters Association hosts one of a series of seminars to improve the awareness of Irish companies of the business opportunities in Asia, in this case for internationally traded services.

It is our hope that by engaging in this kind of awareness raising activity we will help to secure the long-term potential which exists for the economic relations between Ireland and Asia.

However, in addition to working bilaterally, it is also important to note that we are fully engaged in the ASEM Process, which is bringing together the European Union and Asia. The ASEM Process is a sterling example of the best kind of international discourse. A week after the horrendous attacks in the United States, I am sure that you will agree with me that it is more important than ever that we make every effort and take every opportunity to improve the links between countries across the globe, to ensure that dialogue and peaceful interaction form the basis of relations between nations and peoples.

In fact, I was in Hanoi at the third Asia Europe Economic Ministers Meeting, EMM 3, last week when I heard the news of the terrorist attacks. The meeting had just concluded when the news came.

I am pleased to say that the meeting was a very successful one. We were able to put a stamp of approval on the large volume of economic cooperation work which has been going on in ASEM since 1996 and also set the framework for the further development of this work into the future.

The meeting was attended by Ministers from ten Asian countries, lead by Vietnam and China, and the fifteen European Union member states, lead by the Belgian Presidency and the European Commission. The meeting was chaired by the Vietnamese Trade Minister and there was also representation from private industry, in the person of Mr. Stephen Lee, Chairman of the Asia Europe Business Forum.

The economic cooperation work of ASEM over the past 4 or 5 years has focussed particularly on efforts to facilitate the development of trade and investment flows between, and among, Asia and Europe as well as to maximise the benefit from the economic synergy of the two regions.

A Trade Facilitation Action Plan, the TFAP, has been developed which aims at reducing non tariff barriers and promoting trade opportunities between the two regions. TFAP is not itself a forum for negotiations, it contributes to the goal of promoting greater trade between Asia and Europe and facilitating and liberalising trade between the two sides.

Particular priority areas have been identified, with the help of the business sector; they include Public Procurement, Customs Procedures, Standards and Certification and meetings, seminars and reports in these areas have contributed to a greater understanding of the trade barriers which exist. The approach in the TFAP is then that each ASEM member reports regularly on a voluntary basis on the measures taken to reduce and remove these barriers. Considerable progress has been achieved following this approach and efforts will be continuing. There was a very interesting proposal from Sweden at the Hanoi meeting for an initiative to start working on paperless customs procedures within the ASEM framework and this will be reported at our meeting next year.

The meeting also looked at the achievements made in the ASEM Investment Promotion Action Plan, IPAP. This is another element of the economic cooperation work which is ongoing in ASEM. The IPAP is designed to identify barriers to investment between the EU and Asia and to help to find the most effective measures of promoting investment from each region to the other. The plan seems to have helped the improvement of investment flows in the region with measures taken to overcome obstacles to investment and measures to attract foreign direct investment. We decided in Hanoi that the investment experts should continue their work, focussing on Investment Promotion as well as the other activities.

In all of the economic cooperation work of the ASEM, there's a close interaction with the private sector; this is facilitated by the work of the Asia Europe Business Forum. The AEBF is having its sixth annual get together in Singapore next month. It has produced a series of recommendations across a broad range of thematic issues, such as financial services, SMEs, Biotechnology and E Commerce and these are being responded to by the various governments. In the future, there will be a particular focus on the need for SMEs in ASEM countries to establish contacts, to exchange views and experiences, and to explore possibilities for business partnerships.

The forthcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Qatar in November (although this may now be in doubt given what happened in the US) was a major subject for discussion in Hanoi and, particularly, support for the launching of a new Round of multilateral trade negotiations. There was a very welcome meeting of minds on the subject and the meeting issued a strong statement of commitment to a new round. Ministers recognised the need, in the current global economic situation, for a new round which could act as a catalyst to revitalise the world economy through further trade liberalisation and strengthening the rule based multilateral trading system.

I took every opportunity, during the meeting to emphasise Ireland's wholehearted support for continuing cooperation between Europe and Asia on economic matters and I outlined our own continuing efforts in this regard. On the WTO, I emphasised, in particular our support for the launching of a new round, a fully comprehensive round which would take on board the concerns of the developing world and bring them fully into the multilateral trading system.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In Ireland, we are increasingly aware of the importance of developing our relations with the countries of Asia, and ASEAN represents some of the most important economies in the region. For this reason, I would like to wish you every success in today's seminars, and to say that I look forward to working with you all in the future to ensure that our relations keep growing.