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enior officials representing Japan and ASEAN members will hold the 26th ASEAN-Japan Forum here beginning Friday to discuss efforts to foster cooperation for the 2011-2015 period.

The two parties would focus the cooperation on political security, economic, social and cultural fields in line with the leaders’ talks during the recent ASEAN-Japan Summit, ASEAN co-chair forum representative Djauhari Oratmangun said.

“We need to adjust our cooperation policies with Japan, one of ASEAN’s main partners, to cope with the changes of recent times. Therefore, we are looking forward to working closely to revise the plan of action in providing guidelines for our cooperation in the next five years,” he said.

The fields of cooperation include developing small and medium enterprises in ASEAN, environmental conservation, climate change, natural disaster management, counter-terrorism, sciences and exchange of students and youths.

Senior officials in the meeting also discussed Japan’s initial plan on ASEAN connectivity, which reflected the country’s constructive contribution in supporting the integration of ASEAN through physical connectivity, trade facilitation, an ASEAN Single Window and people-to-people connectivity.

“ASEAN countries also welcome Japan’s initiative of ASEAN-Japan Partnership for New Growth in Asia to endorse the group’s synergy toward the 2015 ASEAN Community,” Djauhari said.

Kimihiro Ishikane, the forum’s Japan co-chair, said his country is determined to fully support and cooperate with ASEAN in implementing the master plan, adding that this meeting is important to preparing a new step for the next five years of cooperation.

“As agreed by our leaders in the recent summit, we will be revising our Tokyo Declaration, which was launched in 2003, and we will be revising our plan of action which will be based upon and reflect the reality in the region,” Ishikane said.

“We very much welcome the adoption of ASEAN connectivity. The implementation of this master plan will truly promote and facilitate the integration you would be engaged in by the year 2015,” he said, adding that the results of this two-day forum would be brought to the ASEAN-Japan ministerial meeting mid next year, and would be endorsed by the leaders of both ASEAN and Japan in the next summit in October 2011.

The Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) has been established to finance the partnership projects.

Japan has already contributed US$400 million to the plan within the 2006-2010 period to conduct important projects covering the designated fields of cooperation, Japan ambassador for ASEAN Takio Yamada said.

“For the next five years there are many projects in the JAIF pipeline. We will contribute a significant amount of funds, roughly $150 million, and there is increasing demand from Japan to ensure the accountability and transparency of the financing,” Yamada said.

Among others, the funds granted by Japan for the 2011-2015 period would be used to establish the ASEAN Coordination on Humanitarian Assistance, which would be based in Jakarta, Djauhari said.

“The fund will be used for capacity-building activities on natural disaster management, in which Japan has strong capability,” he added.