Germany have recently given a support worth 1.9 million EUR (2.01 million USD) to the ASEAN Secretariat to carry out the fourth phase of the Joint Capacity Building Project, according to the ASEAN Secretariat.

Under the fourth phase, the fund will be used to help the Secretariat improve its legal service quality as well as consolidate the organisation mechanism such as the Human Resources Division, Public Outreach and Civil Society Division, Strategic Planning & Coordination Division, and selected technical divisions from the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Department.

This phase will also help the Secretariat enhance its legal services, introduce an ASEAN Project Monitoring & Evaluation Framework and Project Database, develop the ASEAN Secretariat's Strategic Human Resources Development Plan (SHRD) 2016-2020 and improve the availability of AEC related information for Small and Medium Enterprises within the region.

It will also help the Secretariat to develop a Social Media Engagement Plan for 2015 and beyond.
At the signing ceremony which took place on March 9, .E. AKP Mochtan, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Community and Corporate Affairs, reiterated his appreciation for the continuous support from Germany.

Meanwhile, Ulrich Mohr, Director of the Germany international cooperation organisation (GIZ) in Indonesia, underscored the staple role of sharing knowledge and developing future solutions for ASEAN to become a fast growing region.

Germany is a member state of the European Union, which is a dialogue partner of ASEAN since 1980.
The joint project has been implemented to support ASEAN through fostering the Secretariat’s institutional capacity and its strategic plans.-VNA