Economic ministers from Japan and member countries of the Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held a meeting in Tokyo on April28 to explore ways to deepen their cooperation to encourage trade andinvestment in the region.
Attending the meetingwere Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano,Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh, Thai Commerce MinisterBoonsong Teriyapirom and ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan.
During the meeting, participants discussed how they can cooperate tolaunch negotiations on the proposed Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP) to encourage trade and investment in East Asia .
Ministers also took the opportunity to make necessarypreparations for setting up a 10-year road map for the region'sstrategic growth at the next meeting in Cambodia in August.
Other issues on the meeting’s agenda included measures to preventnatural disasters as well as the creation of a network to shareinformation to minimize effects and damages caused by disasters.
The Japan-ASEAN ministerial meeting was held on the last day of afour-day tour to Japan by ASEAN ministers, which included a visit toSendai, a northeastern Japanese city badly affected by the March 2011quake-tsunami disaster.-VNA