Myanmar Readies for the ASEAN Chair 2014

(22-05-2013)

Fifteen Myanmar senior diplomats and other senior government officials are currently in Jakarta to prepare the country as Chair of ASEAN 2014. The 13-24 May programme includes consultations with officials from the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs – KemLu, the sessions at the ASEAN Secretariat, among others.

The two-week visit is aimed at exchanging expertise and experiences carried out between stakeholders relevant to Myanmar’s ASEAN Chair in 2014. This included:

• Introduction to working processes and procedures of ASEAN and the ASEAN-Secretariat with focus on the functions of an ASEAN Chair and identification of priority topics and so called “deliverables” of the ASEAN Agenda under the Myanmar chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014;
• Exchange of experiences on Indonesian Chairmanship in 2011;
• Consultation with the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN (CPR) with focus on the expectations associated with the ASEAN Chair and identification of priority topics for Myanmar chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014;
• Consultation with representatives of  the Plus Three Ambassadors to ASEAN;
• Discussions with representatives from the EU delegation; and
• Two-day training module “Public and media relations” focusing on dealing professionally with representatives of international media, requirements (technical, logistical) in the context of media coverage from Myanmar and organising the accreditation process for representatives of international media.

Further, it provides contacts and network of relevant key stakeholders within ASEAN to the training participants for further facilitating their work during the 2014 Chairmanship of Myanmar.

This programme will be completed with a tailor-made two-week training module of the “International Training for Diplomats” program at the Foreign Service Academy of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin/Germany and Brussels/Belgium in late June 2013.

The visit of Myanmar delegations is organised by the German Federal Foreign Office commissioned the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), in close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia (KEMLU) and the ASEAN Secretariat.