Cablegate: Asean Dialogue Partners Ramp Up Technical Assistance

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RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #1830/01 2700726
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 260726Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0215
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2548
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PNEH 0525
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 3251
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 0622
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 8529
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2279
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 3101
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 3122
RUEHGP/AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE 6334
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 001830

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/RSP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/EP
DEPT FOR EB/IFD/OMA
DEPT ALSO FOR OES/IET AND OES/ETC/TED
USAID FOR LCHILES
BANGKOK FOR USAID/PARISH
CAMBODIA FOR USAID
MANILA FOR USAID
HANOI FOR USAID
COMMERCE FOR 4430/KELLY
SINGAPORE FOR BAKER

E.O. 12598: N/A
TAGS: ECON PHUM PREL PGOV KDEM ID BM
SUBJECT: ASEAN DIALOGUE PARTNERS RAMP UP TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

1. (SBU) Summary. The European Commission (EC), Germany and
Australia will significantly increase technical assistance to ASEAN
and the ASEAN Secretariat over the next few years. Japan and the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) also have large ongoing assistance
programs for ASEAN. Participants at an internal EC workshop on
trade-related assistance in Jakarta noted that donor assistance to
ASEAN is now several times the ASEAN Secretariat's own budget. End
Summary.

AusAID Scales Up ASEAN Assistance
---------------------------------
2. (U) The Australian Government's Overseas Aid Organization
(AusAID) has launched the second phase of its ASEAN-Australia
Development Cooperation Programme (AADCP-II), which places a high
priority on assisting ASEAN with economic integration challenges.
AACDP-II Director Rebecca Lannin, an AusAid employee, will manage
the program's activities at the ASEAN Secretariat. The A$57 million
($48 million) project, which will run for five years, will provide
research, policy advice and staff to the ASEAN Secretariat. The
AADCP-II is also set up to use the ASEAN Secretariat's own staff and
systems for project development, rather than creating an
independently run project. In addition to AADCP-II, AusAid is
preparing to launch a A$25 million ($21 million) Economic
Cooperation Work Program (ECWP) to support the implementation of the
ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. The ECWP will run
for five years.

EC Set to Launch Five New Programs in 2009-10
---------------------------------------------
3. (U) The European Commission and Germany are also in the process
of increasing their support to ASEAN. The second phase of the EC's
ASEAN Programme for Regional Integration Support (APRIS II), a
three-year, 6.2 million Euro ($9.1 million) project focused on
providing assistance on standards, customs, investment and ASEAN
capacity building, was launched in 2006. In addition, the EC plans
to launch five additional three-year ASEAN programs in 2009 and
2010. These programs will focus on statistical capacity building
($8.8 million), intellectual property rights protection ($7.4
million), support for the EC-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement ($3.7
million), civil aviation liberalization (budget not yet determined),
and non-traded related sectors development ($5.9 million). The EC
is also in the early stage of planning a program to support ASEAN's
work on customs, according to the Delegation of the EC in Jakarta.
Germany also launched its own ($2.6 million) one-year program to
provide technical assistance to the ASEAN Secretariat and member
states in 2008. The German government plans to renew the program on
an annual basis with a budget of roughly $1.5 million per year.

Japan and ADB Maintain Sizeable Programs
----------------------------------------
4. (U) Japan and the Asian Development Bank also have large
technical assistance programs focused on ASEAN. Japan has allocated
$70 million to a trust fund for ASEAN development assistance and has
a $52 million program to promote the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive
Economic Partnership. In addition, Japan maintains a stockpile of
500,000 courses of the antibiotic Tamiflu for ASEAN member countries
in the event of an outbreak of Avian Influenza. In an effort to
support the East Asia Summit (EAS), Japan has also set aside ten
billion yen ($94 million) to sponsor a virtual think tank for
economic research in East Asia. A Japanese national manages the
institute, which consists of a network of think tanks from EAS
member countries, from the ASEAN Secretariat. The ADB has also
announced plans to increase its focus on the ASEAN region.
According to senior officials at the ADB, the bank has a long-term
goal of spending 30 percent of its budget on regional or
sub-regional activities in Southeast Asia.

ASEAN Secretariat Resources Strained
------------------------------------

JAKARTA 00001830 002 OF 002

5. (SBU) The ASEAN Secretariat is facing capacity constraints given
the increased scope of work associated with creating the ASEAN
Economic Community by 2015 and the increased size and complexity of
ASEAN's projects, according to Lim Chze Cheen of the Bureau for
Economic Integration and Finance. The ASEAN Secretariat's annual
budget from its own members is $10 million ($1 million from each
member state). [Note: ASEAN has repeatedly rejected the idea of
increasing the contribution level for more affluent member states.
End note.] While the ASEAN Secretariat will get some additional
funding from member states following the ratification of the ASEAN
Charter, Mr. Lim does not expect the level to increase
significantly. Several ASEAN dialogue partners who participated in
a European Commission workshop on trade-related assistance in
Jakarta noted that donor assistance to ASEAN is now several times
the size of ASEAN Secretariat's own budget. Participants at the EU
forum also underscored the need for the ASEAN Secretariat to
increase its capacity to manage and coordinate donor activities
given the growing size and scope of dialogue partner assistance.

HUME

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