The 8th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting on Minerals (AMMin) was conducted online last October 08, 2021 via Cisco Webex platform. Both His Excellency (H.E.) Tran Quy Kien, Vice Minister of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) of Viet Nam and H.E. Sok Khavan, Secretary of State, Ministry of Mines and Energy of Cambodia, served as the chair and vice chair of the Meeting, which was preceded by the 21st ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Minerals (ASOMM), 14th ASOMM+3 Consultation and other meeting/events from October 04-07, 2021. Mr. Jim O. Sampulna, CESO I, Undersecretary for Mining and Muslim Affairs, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, was the one who attended the event.
The Meeting conducted a final term review of the ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP) Phase 1 2016-2020, which commended ASOMM along with its Working Groups for their strong efforts to implement and accomplish the initiatives planned under this Phase amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This Meeting endorsed the AMCAP-III Phase 2 to serve as an ASEAN cooperation guide in the minerals sector under the ASEAN Economic Blueprint 2025 for the period of 2021-2025.
AMCAP-III Phase 2 will be focusing towards: 1) boosting domestic and international investments in all components of the minerals value chain; 2) adopting sustainable minerals development principles and working to expand stakeholder engagement and contribution; 3) building human, institutional and technical capacities in minerals governance, and; 4) developing new strategies and effective tools for collecting and processing data for the ASEAN minerals information system to drive investments and sustainable development.
The Meeting concluded with bright hopes for the 22nd ASOMM in 2022, which will be hosted by Brunei Darussalam and the 9th AMMin in 2023, which will be hosted by Cambodia.
By: Mineral Economics, Information, and Publication Division
USEC Jim O. Sampulna, DENR, during the Meeting.