Summary Report of the Expert Meeting 2001

The First International Expert Meeting April 11, 2001

1. The Experts' Meeting on DUO, the ASEM Fellowship Programme was convened in Seoul, Korea on April 10-11, 2001. The Meeting was attended by experts from ASEM members to discuss practical matters necessary for the implementation of the Programme which was jointly proposed by France, Korea and Singapore and endorsed at the Third ASEM Summit last year. The experts exchanged views and ideas on the DUO Programme.

2. The experts considered the DUO concept paper draft as of 30 January 2001 and adopted this paper as the basic framework of the DUO Programme.

3. There emerged a consensus that the DUO Programme's structure be as streamlined as possible and that a steering committee was not necessary at this stage.

4. Some delegates raised questions on various points of the DUO concept paper and these questions were clarified by the contributing members. The detailed record of the questions raised is contained in the notes as Annex A (record of meeting and discussion).

5. France, Korea and Singapore will launch their components of the DUO Programme as soon as possible. Several European and Asian ASEM members expressed interest to join in at a later stage.

6. The meeting welcomed Korea for its offer to set up a Secretariat based in Seoul. The detailed composition of this Secretariat can be found in Annex A.

7. On the question of funding of the Secretariat, Korea offered to provide the premises and pay the staff salaries. It was agreed that contributing partners consult further on the operating costs of the Secretariat.

8. The experts recommended that the revised concept paper, this summary report, detailed DUO-France Programme, and record of meeting and discussion be submitted to the SOM to be held during April 25 - 27, 2001 in Sweden. The experts also expressed the view that the SOM should exert efforts to secure widest possible participation as contributors by the ASEM members in the DUO Programme. END.