Germany and ASEAN are jointly working towards further strengthening ASEAN institutions. Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan concluded today a 2 million euro German-ASEAN cooperation project on capacity-building for the ASEAN Secretariat.

The initiative builds on the long-standing and close relationship between Germany and ASEAN and is a contribution towards imple­menting the "Nuremberg Declaration" on the EU-ASEAN Enhanced Partnership, endorsed by the 16th ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting held in Nuremberg, Germany, on 15 March 2007.

The German-ASEAN co-operation project aims at supporting the institution building process of ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat. The rationale behind the initiative is the shared view that successful regional cooperation and integration need solid institutions.

Under the project, Germany will offer, among other things, train­ing courses in the field of human resources management, organisa­tional management and administration, legal matters, public affairs and an outreach programme for ASEAN awareness.

The German company "InWEnt – Capacity Building Inter­national" has been assigned to work with the ASEAN Secretariat to implement the above project.