Jakarta (VNA) – ASEAN and Canada reaffirmed commitment to strengtheningcooperation under their new Plan of Action 2021-2025 in areas of mutualinterests at the 9th ASEAN-Canada Joint Cooperation Committee(JCC) Meeting via videoconference.
Bothsides highlighted the importance of continuing efforts to effectively implementthe new Plan of Action (2021-2025), adopted at the ASEAN-Canada MinisterialMeeting in September last year.
Inthis spirit, the meeting agreed to deepen collaboration in the areas of tradeand investment; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development; publichealth; innovation including entrepreneurship and start-ups; digital economy;education; gender equality; women, peace and security; and connectivity.
The meetinghighlighted the importance of collaboration towards post COVID-19 recovery, andensuring fair, equitable and global access of vaccines. ASEAN also welcomedCanada’s interest to contribute to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund, as well ascooperation through initiatives such as the ASEAN Comprehensive RecoveryFramework.
ASEANalso appreciated Canada’s support to ASEAN Community building and integrationefforts through cooperation programmes such as; the Canada-ASEAN Scholarshipsand Educational Exchanges for Development (SEED); the Canada-OECD Project forASEAN SMEs (COPAS); and the “TRIANGLE in ASEAN initiative” to promote safe andfair labour migration.
Movingforward, both sides underscored the significance of enhancing economicrelations and looked forward to advancing discussion on a possible ASEAN-CanadaFree Trade Agreement, which is also one of the priority economic deliverablesof Brunei Darussalam’s Chairmanship of ASEAN this year.
Takingnote that next year marks the 45th Anniversary of theASEAN-Canada Dialogue Partnership, Canada looked forward to engaging ASEAN onpotential commemorative events./.