On 12 November, from 4.45 PM to 6.00 PM (Japan time), the 23^rd Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting was held on line, chaired by Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. The Summit was followed by an inaugural event to mark the establishment of the ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attended the meetings.

The Feasibility Study on the Establishment of “ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases” is currently on-going and supported by the Government of Japan through Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).

We are pleased to announce that MLIT of Japan is planning to host the “2nd ASEAN- Japan Smart Cities Network High Level Meeting” on December 16th, 2020 with the support of the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF). As you may be aware, Japan has been committed to supporting ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) initiative since 2018. This meeting is continuation of last year and supposed to be held by video conference due to global spread of coronavirus infection.

As a background, the 1st Meeting was held in Yokohama, Japan in 2019. It was great pleasure to have more than 800 participants including guests from ASEAN and discuss common challenges for promoting smart city. At the end of the meeting, we shared the Summary Record which emphasizes the importance of “Challenge Oriented concept” and acknowledged the establishment of the Japan Association for Smart Cities in ASEAN (JASCA) to accelerate Public-Private cooperation between both sides.

Up-coming meeting aims to facilitate the progress of smart city projects by sharing good practices in ASEAN and Japan, discussing how to address issues even in the difficult situation by COVID-19, as well as encouraging Public-Private networking.

Please check this official website to know details of the 2nd High – Level Meeting. Further information will be updated on this website.

H.E. Ambassador Chiba Akira, Ambassador of Japan to ASEAN has spoken highly of the role of Viet Nam as ASEAN Chair in 2020 with the successful organization of the 37^th ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings despite of COVID-19. He expressed his appreciation to the Vietnamese government for the organisation of the event, while saying that he believed all participants were satisfied. Sharing the message Japan reiterated throughout the summits, Ambassador Chiba said the most important thing is Japan’s support to the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific (AOIP). The AOIP has many fundamental principles that are shared with Japan’s own policy.

Ambassador Chiba said Japan is ready to help ASEAN countries in many aspects such as infrastructure building, amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic that caused economic problems for ASEAN countries. Japan is also ready to fund projects that relate to vulnerable parts of each community, and plans to continue promoting cooperation programmes in human resources development, he added. On Japan-ASEAN cooperation outcomes in 2020, the biggest project that Japan has together with ASEAN is the ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (AC-PHEED), launched at the Japan-ASEAN Summit.

The Feasibility Study on the Establishment of “ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases” is currently on-going and supported by the Government of Japan through Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).

The 23rd ASEAN-Japan Summit was held online on 12 November. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who attended the meeting, explained Japan’s position on Japan’s cooperation with ASEAN and the South China Sea issue in the wake of the new coronavirus. As a major achievement, a joint statement on cooperation with ASEAN’s Indo-Pacific initiative “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)” has been adopted.

At the summit, Prime Minister Suga spoke about the establishment of the ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases and the “ASEAN-Japan Economic Resilience Action Plan” as cooperation with ASEAN following the “new corona pandemic.” The ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases was proposed by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the ASEAN + 3 (Japan-China-Korea) Special Summit in April, and at the time of the Japan-ASEAN Summit, the establishment event of the Centre was also held.

The Feasibility Study on the Establishment of “ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases” is currently on-going and supported by the Government of Japan through Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).

The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (the AHA Centre) has released most of the relief items stockpiled at the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN ( DELSA) Satellite Warehouse in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, the Philippines, to augment the government’s ongoing efforts to help typhoon-affected people in the Philippines. The DELSA Satellite Warehouse was set up in 2019, and is co-managed by the AHA Centre and the Office of Civil Defense of the Philippines.

Ms. Adelina Kamal, the Executive Director of the AHA Centre, mentioned that the mobilisation of ASEAN relief items, supported by Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) and Direct Relief, represents tangible ASEAN’s solidarity in the spirit of ‘One ASEAN, One Response’. “The AHA Centre has been monitoring the disaster situation in the Philippines since October 2020 when several weather disturbances were first identified”. She added “When we gathered and received information about the potential impacts caused by these extreme weather disturbances, our Emergency Operations Centre was activated, and this includes working closely with our counterpart at the OCD of NDRRMC in the Philippines as well as other ASEAN countries and partners for potential regional support”.