The origin of the ASEANWEB goes as far back as the First Meeting of the Policy Exchange Mechanism (PEM) of the ASEAN Economic Ministers held in Chiangmai, Thailand on 25 September 1994.
At the PEM, the Ministers felt it was important that exchange of information take place to facilitate trade and investment among the private sectors of ASEAN Member Countries. To this end, the Ministers considered the possibility of creating a database which could be utilized by the private sector to promote industrial joint ventures and expand intra-ASEAN trade. The database would cover trade and investment statistics, business activity and types of products available.
The Senior Economic Official Meeting (SEOM 2/26) held in Jakarta on 15-18 March 1995 created a working group comprising of trade promotion organization in Member Countries, especially those participating in the UNCTAD Trade Efficiency Programme, to meet the mandate of the PEM. The Working Group on Trade and Investment Database met twice i.e. on 11 May 1995 in Bangkok and 4-5 October 1995 in Jakarta to draw up the guiding principles, design and structure for the implementation of the trade and investment database known as the ASEANWEB.
The Working Group agreed that the ASEANWEB should be easily accessible, entail minimum cost of maintenance and be self-sustainable. To this end, INTERNET was chosen as the medium for disseminating ASEAN trade and investment information. The ASEANWEB was designed with two main components in mind: an ASEAN Secretariat HomePage and Member Countries HomePage. The former HomePage will contain information on ASEAN while the latter HomePage will contain a set of basic information about Member Countries which are of interest to traders and investors such as their policies, opportunities, statistics and directories of services.
The ASEANWEB was officially launched by the Chairman of the ASEAN Economic Ministers, His Excellency Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman Taib, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources of Brunei Darussalam, at the Joint Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok on 12 December 1995.
As depicted in Figure 24, the ASEAN Secretariat HomePage has ten icons i.e. Overview, What is new ?, AMM, Politics, Economic, Functional, General, ASEAN Summit, World Affairs and Other Web Sites.
Under Overview is the welcome message from the Secretary-General of ASEAN, summary of progress in various areas of cooperation and brief profiles of Member Countries. The section on What is new? will provide information on the I test development in ASEAN activities.
In the AMM section is information on the preparation for the forthcoming 29th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) to be held in Jakarta in July 1996. It covers background to the meeting, programme of activities, registration and also updates of the meeting. The section will be continuously revised to provide current information for all forthcoming Ministerial Meetings as well as the ASEAN Summit. In the politics section is information on the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the past agreements, press releases and statements made by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers.
At present the Economic portion covers the progress made in achieving the ASEAN Free Trade Area. It also includes the agreements, explanatory notes, trade values, tariff reduction schedules, press releases by the AFTA Council and ASEAN Economic Ministers as well as highlights of Member Countries HomePage. Links are also provided to users to access Member Countries’ Web Server for further details.
In the Functional area is information covering past agreements, plans of action and press releases made by the ASEAN sectoral ministers on culture and information, environment, science and technology and social development. The General icon provides information on the calendar of ASEAN activities and ASEAN publications.
The Fifth ASEAN Summit is also covered in the ASEAN Secretariat HomePage. Included are the welcoming, opening and closing statements by the ASEAN Heads of Government, the protocols and agreements signed by the ASEAN Economic and Foreign Ministers and the Bangkok Summit Declaration of 1995 signed by the ASEAN Heads of Government.
The World Affairs icon covers international activities where ASEAN Member Countries participate’ such as the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference Meeting, ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation to name a few. The HomePage also provide links to other public and private web sites in ASEAN Member Countries. The scope of information in the HomePage will grow rapidly from now on to cover all areas of cooperation engaged in by Member Countries.
The ASEANWEB will continuously be changed to keep its intended audience abreast of the latest development in ASEAN activities. The ASEANWEB will soon incorporate the ASEAN Document Series, a collection of historic ASEAN pictures, regional linkages and cooperation such as AFTA-CER and multimedia showcase for functional cooperation activities.
The ASEANWEB is best viewed using Netscape Version 3.0 or above (i.e. an Internet browser) at the following URL address i.e. http://www.asean.org.
