JAKARTA — The Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) Task Force convened its 63rd meeting virtually in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday.
Ambassador Nguyễn Hải Bằng, Permanent Representative of Việt Nam to ASEAN, chaired the meeting in the capacity of chair of the Task Force in 2021.
This was a regular meeting of ASEAN permanent representatives to review projects within the IAI and seek to improve the efficiency of IAI Work Plans, including the completion of the IAI Work Plan III (2016-2020) and the launch of IAI Work Plan IV (2021-2025) which was adopted in late 2020.
So far, 22 out of 26 action lines of the IAI Work Plan III have been implemented across five strategic areas of “Food and Agriculture”, “Trade Facilitation”, “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)”, “Education”, and “Health and Well-being”.
Currently, 127 projects have been approved and implemented with total capital of US$30.79 million. By the end of the work plan in July 2021, seven additional projects will be designed to complete the remaining four action lines.
At the meeting, the Task Force approved 17 new projects within the IAI Work Plan IV (2021-2025), 16 funded by Singapore and one by Japan.
The Task Force will continue to speed up the second phase of the project supporting the implementation of the IAI Work Plan IV, including the organisation of national consultations in CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Việt Nam) and a regional consultation forum. — VNS