WE the undersigned, attending the Fifteenth Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry in Bandar Seri Begawan on 28-30 October 1993, under the chairmanship of His Excellency Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman Taib, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Brunei Darussalam:

RECALLING :

1. The Declaration of ASEAN Concord signed in Bali, Indonesia on 24 February 1976 which provides that member states shall take cooperative action in their national and regional development programmes;

2. The Manila Consensus of August l979 which has adopted an ASEAN Agricultural Policy;

3. The Agreement on the ASEAN Food Security Reserve signed on 4 October 1979 in which among others noted that assurance of food security in the ASEAN region is the common responsibility of the member states;

4. The Jakarta Consensus on ASEAN Tropical Forestry signed in August 1981 which outlines the ASEAN common forestry policy, technical cooperation, cooperation in intra-ASEAN trade and ASEAN common stand on international issues on forestry;

5. The Singapore Declaration signed at the Fourth ASEAN Summit in 1992 which agreed that:
   1. ASEAN shall adopt joint efforts to strengthen trade promotion and negotiations on ASEAN agricultural products in order to enhance ASEAN's competitive posture, and to sustain the expansion of ASEAN agricultural exports in the international market;

   2. ASEAN shall enhance cooperation and collective action in international and inter-regional fora as well as in international organisations and regional groupings; and

   3. ASEAN shall also continue to enhance relations with its dialogue partners and other producing/consuming countries towards the advancement of the commodity,sector in the region and in addressing international commodity issues;and

   4. Which acknowledged that sub-regional arrangements among themselves, or between ASEAN member states and non-ASEAN economies could complement overall ASEAN economic cooperation;

      
      

REITERATING our commitment to the Framework Agreement on Enhancing ASEAN Economic Cooperation signed in Singapore on 28 January 1992 which provides the focus of cooperation in food, agriculture and forestry on the areas of development, production and promotion of agricultural products for ensuring food security and upgrading of information exchanges, and on the need to strengthen technical joint cooperation to better manage, conserve, develop and market forest resources;

CONSIDERING that agriculture and forestry will remain as important aspects of the ASEAN economy with a particularly significant impact on income enhancement and poverty alleviation and that human resources can be developed through the transfer of technology, a resultant of the implementation of bold investment programmes;

REAFFIRMING our awareness of the dynamics of recent global affairs and the trend towards regional trade and economic integration and environmental issues;

RECOGNISING the need to align the food, agriculture, fishery and forestry sectors within the main stream of ASEAN economic cooperation and that these sectors cannot progress without promoting commodity trade and ASEAN taking full advantage of the relevant international organisations and fora;

ACCEPTING the importance of liberalising the agriculture sector to transform the sector from a production-push approach to a market-oriented approach;and

RECOGNISING that meaningful ASEAN cooperation can be best achieved through the strengthening of existing inter-country linkages among food, agriculture, fishery and forestry institutions and agencies of member states and that member states must incorporate regional common needs oriented programmes into on-going national programmes;

DO HEREBY AGREE THAT :

Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry

1. The ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry shall focus on the following priority areas:

   i) Strengthening food security in the region;

   ii) Facilitation and promotion of intra-and extra - ASEAN trade in agriculture, fishery and forest products;

   iii) Technology generation and transfer to increase productivity and develop agribusiness and silvobusiness;

   iv) Agricultural rural community and human resources development;

   v) Private sector involvement and investment; and

   vi) Management and conservation of natural resources for sustainable development; and

   vii) Strengthening ASEAN cooperation and joint approaches in addressing international and regional issues

2. Under each of the priority areas of ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry, member,states shall develop an action programme of cooperative, joint and collective efforts in policy coordination, research, technology transfer, production, marketing and investment promotion;

3. The action programmes approved by the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) shall have activities focusing on the promotion of information exchange, enhancement of human resources development, strengthening of institutional capacities, promotion of ASEAN common stand and collective efforts, and enhancement of economic inter-linkages and complementarity in the region;

4. Member states shall collectively develop a work plan for consideration and approval by SOM-AMAF;

5. The ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry shall be promoted through the establishment of an Agreement on ASEAN Agriculture and Forest Products Promotion Scheme. This proposed scheme should be based on the approved Joint Promotion of ASEAN Agricultural Products concept as agreed to at the 13th Meeting of AMAF in Chiang Rai, Thailand in 1991 and shall complement the implementation of the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme for ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) where applicable. The Scheme should cover the following activities:

   i) Joint product promotion for intra - and extra -ASEAN trade;

   ii) Harmonisation of quality standards of food, agriculture and forest products;

   iii) Trade and investment promotion;

   iv) Technical cooperation in technology development and transfer and human resources development;

   v) Enhancement of complementarity of ASEAN products; and

   vi) Strengthening private sector participation

   
   

   Organisation and Coordination
   
   
    
6. The AMAF shall meet annually to consider, review and approve policies, strategies and action programmes.

7. The AMAF shall be supported by SOM-AMAF.The SOM-AMAF will meet at least twice a year.
   
   

8. The Chairman ship of AMAF and SOM-AMAF shall be rotated annually.

9. The SOM-AMAF may request the ASEAN Secretariat to establish working group swith clear terms of reference and specific time-frames to assist in formulating and implementing policies, strategies and action programmes.

10. The ASEAN Secretariat shall provide the administrative support to SOM-AMAF and AMAF, with all submissions and evaluations from subsidiary bodies of AMAF to be channeled through it.

11. The ASEAN Secretariat shall coordinate and monitor closely the approved activities under the action programmes with the relevant ASEAN institutions and agencies.

    
    

    Implementation

12. The implementation of action programmes shall be carried out by member states and/or ASEAN specialised centre sand/or other approved agencies.

13. Each member state shall establish a national focal point to coordinate and oversee the implementation of in-country components of the ASEAN programme of action;

14. The SOM-AMAF shall review and evaluate the ASEAN cooperation programme in food, agriculture and forestry in relation to the following:

    (i) policy formulation and coordination;

    (ii) trade and investment facilitation;

    (iii) technical cooperation;

    (iv) human resources development; and

    (v) joint actions and approaches in international organisations and fora;

15. .The action programmes shall promote the active involvement and participation of the business and private sector.

    
    

Done at Bandar Seri Begawan on the Twenty-eighth day of October, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Three.