JAKARTA, Aug. 15 Kyodo Officials ...

JAKARTA, Aug. 15 Kyodo

Officials of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its ''dialogue partners,'' which include Japan, China, the United States and the European Union, met Thursday to discuss a work plan designed to narrow the evolution gap between the grouping's older and newer members.

In the two-day Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) disclosure Cooperation Forum, a number of delineate s proposed by ASEAN member countries will be discussed during the meeting at the Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretariat, which is also being participated in through representatives of international institutions.

ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo Severino said the goal is to bring newer members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam ''into the ASEAN mainstream, helping them to raise their on a level of development closer to the older members.''

The older and more unraveled ASEAN member countries are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said the work plan, endorsed on the four newer members last February, constitutes ''a risk of opportunities for putting into practice a universal of development cooperation that is not between donor and recipient still between equals in a mutually beneficial partnership.''

''This is the kind of partnership that helped the earlier ASEAN members rise from the economic stagnation and political turmoil that prevailed in the region when the association was planted some 35 years ago,'' he added.

ASEAN leaders launched the IAI, championed by dint of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, during the fourth ASEAN Informal Summit in Singapore pair years ago in an effort to narrow the divide within its members and enhance Southeast Asia's competitiveness as a region.

The work plan was designed to be the principal guide for the four newer members through the next eight years in their national growth in four priority areas, namely infrastructure, human resource unravelling information and telecommunication technology and regional economic integration.

Supported by the agency of China, Japan and South Korea, the IAI focuses onward education, skill development and worker training.

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