EU and Asia meet on technology

EU and Asian science ministers have taken new steps towards fostering closer research and technology links between Europe and the Pacific Rim following a meeting in Beijing of ministers from 25 countries.

The gathering was part of the continuing Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) initiative launched in 1996 to create new trade and technology transfer. ASEM includes the EU states plus China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Darussalam and Vietnam.

Ireland was represented by the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Commerce, Mr Noel Treacy, who said the meeting had been "very positive".

Ireland was a participant as an EU member-state but it could also make its own connections with the ASEM market which had a combined population of two billion.

China, he said, had been particularly impressed with Ireland's economic progress. "We told them we are a dynamic country which has come a long way over the past 10 years and are a country worth doing business with," he said.

Enterprise Ireland had been "mandated" to establish a presence in the Far East and to develop trade and technology transfer opportunities for Irish companies.

The two-day meeting which closed yesterday was addressed by the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Zhu Rongji. Participants discussed working papers prepared jointly by ASEM partners on exchange procedures, according to an EU source who attended the meetings. They also examined areas of common interest.

ASEM member-states are to follow up this meeting with detailed plans to be presented at ASEM 3 next year. "It is very much at the first stage," the EU source said.

Details of the meeting, including the Chinese Prime Minister's speech, will be placed on the Web within the next few days by the EU's Cordis group which disseminates information about Community research. The address is: http://www.cordis.lu