The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of the world’s most successful regional organizations. Canada has been ASEAN’s Dialogue Partner since 1977 and regularly participates in ministerial-level dialogue and consultations collectively at the annual ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) and the ASEAN Regional Forum. It also gets involve in cooperative endeavors with ASEAN. ASEAN-Canada signed the ASEAN Canada Economic Cooperation Agreement (ACECA) in 1981. The ACECA involved development cooperation in several areas, including industry and commerce, science and technology, environment policy and private sector consultations. Outside ACECA, Canada has extended development assistance to ASEAN in the areas of forestry, human resources development, fisheries, energy, agriculture, transportation and communication. Since its involvement as a Dialogue Partner, Canada has contributed over US$2.8 billion as development assistance to the region.
Trade flows between ASEAN and Canada grew steadily until 1997. After that, Canada-ASEAN trade and investments have languished. However, one should not overstate the situation. The declining importance of Canada-ASEAN trade in the 1990s can in part be explained by economic integration initiatives in North America and Southeast Asia. In addition, ASEAN was also experiencing severe recession as a result of the financial crisis of 1997-98. Nevertheless, in 2006, two-way trade between ASEAN and Canada stood at US$12 billion, and Canadian investment in the region was valued around US$9 billion. ASEAN and Canada also have strong people-to-people links. One million ASEAN immigrants reside in Canada, ASEAN receives 300,000 Canadians tourists annually, and over 2000 ASEAN students study at Canadian universities each year.
Currently, efforts are going on to revitalize the dialogue between ASEAN and Canada. As a starting point, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of the ASEAN-Canada Regional Training Programme (RTP) is being revised. In March 2004, senior officials agreed to strengthen the economic relations between ASEAN and Canada. An analytical study of the ASEAN-Canada trade and investment relationship has been proposed. In the meantime, ASEAN is expected to return to its long-term growth path. In 2006, the group of 10 countries constituted a population of about 567 million and generated a combined gross domestic product of US$ 1.07 trillion. ASEAN is also on its way to becoming a single market by 2015 (ASEAN Economic Community) and this could encourage Canadian companies to look at ASEAN-wide strategies. Moreover, as ASEAN economies emerge from the competitive threat of China and India, Canadian firms could again look for new opportunities in the region. In addition to economic linkages, Canada and ASEAN could build on their strong record of development cooperation - such as in science and technology and energy and human resources development, while looking for new ways of providing technical assistance.
In this light, ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC) in the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, proposes to convene a scoping study to develop a Three-year ASEAN-Canada policy research programme. The overall objective of this study is to promote ongoing research partnerships and build stronger economic, political and socio-economic linkages between ASEAN and Canadian institutions.
For this purpose, ASC is planning to engage two consultants – one from each region - who have knowledge about Canadian institutes and expertise in the mentioned areas. The broad activities to be proposed over the three years would include:
- The annual ASEAN-Canada Forum (hosted alternatively in either of the regions)
- Research projects and scholarly exchanges
- Publication of working papers, policy reports and conference proceedings
- Periodic events like conferences, workshops and seminars
- Publication of policy reports, working papers and conference proceedings
- Internet portal that would include a database of ASEAN and Canadian research institutions and researchers
All this would help to establish linkages with the ASEAN Secretariat, think-tanks (such as members of ASEAN-ISIS), academic institutions, multinational agencies, and other stakeholders that would aid policy development and community-building. This would also promote networking that would forge closer professional relationships among scholars, businessmen and policy-makers in ASEAN and Canada. The basic network was already established when the first ASEAN-Canada forum was arranged in November 2008 at ISEAS, Singapore. The theme was “Regional Economic Integration” and it brought in participants from governments, the private sector and academia.
The consultants would be required to submit a study of around 7000 words developing a work plan and illustrating how the three-year programme can be carried out. This would include a narrative explanation of the activities (objectives, participants, expected results and established links), methodology, timetable and tentative budget. Some broad guidelines for the study would be:
- Broaden the universe of institutes from both the regions so that more researchers and policy makers can participate.
- A budget cap of SG$100,000 per year (approximately) has been set.
- Themes to be addressed in the next three years could be: (a) environment and climate change, (b) human security, and (c) economic crisis and integration
