Priority Areas of Cooperation
The Framework for Comprehensive Economic Partnership between ASEAN and Japan, signed by Leaders at the ASEAN-Japan Summit on 8 October 2003 in Bali, Indonesia, was aimed at establishing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement between ASEAN and Japan.
The AJCEP was concluded in November 2007 in Manila, and signing was completed ad-referendum by 14 April 2008. It entered into force, depending on the Party, between 1 December 2008 and 1 July 2010. The AJCEP aims to liberalise and facilitate trade in goods between ASEAN and Japan and promoting cooperation in fields such as Information and Communications Technology, Intellectual Property, and SMEs. The AJCEP enabled businesses from ASEAN and Japan to gain access to a big and potential regional market of 805 million people and to benefit from tariff concessions and cumulative rules of origin; all of which would provide consumers with greater choice of products with competitive prices.
In 2017, the Parties agreed to complement the Agreement with the completion of chapters on trade in services, movement of natural persons, and investment. In order to incorporate these chapters, all Parties signed the First Protocol to amend the Agreement between 27 February and 24 April 2019. The First Protocol entered into force on 1 August 2020 among Japan, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, and on 1 October 2020 for Brunei Darussalam.
Following the entry into force of the First Protocol to amend the AJCEP, the Agreement now covers a broad spectrum of areas, with standalone chapters/annexes including:
- Trade in goods
- Rules of origin
- Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
- Standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures
- Trade in services
- Investment
- Economic cooperation
- Settlement of disputes
Endorsed in 2023 at the 29th AEM-METI Consultation, the FDAP sets out a ten-year agenda to deepen and expand ASEAN-Japan economic cooperation. The FDAP 2023-2033 builds on past frameworks, such as the Renewed ASEAN-Japan 10-year Strategic Economic Cooperation Roadmap (2016-2025) and the ASEAN-Japan Economic Resilience Action Plan. The FDAP 2023-2033 is framed around four key pillars:
- Strengthening cyber-physical connectivity.
- Co-creation of dynamic human capital.
- Promoting open innovation beyond borders.
- Realising sustainability.
JAIF is a key funding mechanism established by the Government of Japan in March 2006 to support ASEAN’s regional integration and community-building efforts. JAIF was launched following a pledge made by Japan at the 9th ASEAN-Japan Summit in December 2005. JAIF aims to strengthen ASEAN’s institutional capacity and narrow the development gap among AMS. Since its establishment, JAIF has been supporting hundreds of projects across the three ASEAN Community pillars, including Economic Community pillar. JAIF is managed by a dedicated JAIF Management Team (JMT) based at the ASEAN Headquarters/Secretariat in Jakarta.
