ASEAN countries boost mineral cooperation

The 10th ASEAN Senor Officials Meeting on Minerals (ASOM) in Bangkok from March 3-5 focused on discussing regional cooperation to boost investment and sustainable development as well as improve management capacity in the mining industry.

ASOM and a March 4 consultation meeting between ASEAN senior officials and three dialogue partners, including China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ASOM+3), also discussed steps to strengthen cooperation in order to take the full advantage of mineral resources in the region.

The delegates briefed each other on the development of the ASEAN mineral cooperation programme from 2009-2011 and proposed an action plan for the 2011-2015 period.

Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, Deputy Chief of the Department of Geology and Minerals of Vietnam Nguyen Quang Hung and Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources Tran Tan Van said that the Vietnamese delegation presented four proposals at the meeting: assessments of the impact of the climate change on ASEAN’s mining industry along with measures to address the problem of mines at risk of being submerged, and accelerating the development of geothermic as well as other clean energies in the region in order to ensure energy security.

Also on the table were boosting the sustainable development of limestone areas to preserve biodiversity, develop tourism and effectively cope with climate change and building the capacity of surveying, exploring and exploiting underground mines.

The Vietnamese delegation compared notes on bilateral and multilateral cooperation with partners, including China and the RoK, as well as the implementation of mining projects in Laos , Myanmar and Cambodia.

The results of the meeting will be submitted to the third ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Minerals to be held in Vietnam this year.

Tags: ASOM, The 10th ASEAN Senor Officials Meeting on Minerals, Vietnam asean cooperation

Posted by VBN on Mar 7 2010. Filed under Mining & Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry