TNAG-2056-FCO40-2934-Hong-Kong-and-the-Organisation-for-Economic-Cooperation-and--1990 — Page 46

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C/NM(90)22(1st Revision)

character on broad topics and among people participating in their personal capacity and coming from the public, business and academic sectors.

6.

The Informal Seminar "served to confirm that there is a basis for, and indeed a need for, a policy dialogue among OECD Members and the NIES...".

"A clear consensus emerged from the Seminar regarding the desirability of engaging in further contacts and discussions aimed at developing mutual understanding and working jointly for better international adjustment and effective rules of the game" [C/MDE (89)1]. It was considered that, despite the fact that Malaysia and Thailand refused to participate in the Informal Seminar, the possibility for their future participation in the dialogue, should they so wish, would remain open,

C.

7.

Four Informal Workshops held in early 1990

In assessing the significance of the Informal Seminar [C/MDE (89)1], the Secretariat evoked the possibility of a broadening of the process beyond informal consultations in line with the "variable geometry" approach described in paragraph 3. above. At that time, Members were not ready to take such a course, The Council Working Party opted for Informal Workshops with Dynamic Asian Economies (an exercise targeted at a more thorough understanding of the substantive aspects of the OECD/DAE relationship). The 1989 Ministerial Council "endorsed efforts to carry the dialogue forward through informal discussions on more specific issues" and "called for a report at their meeting in 1990".

8.

Four topics were developed through a series of Informal Workshops:

"Financial Markets", Paris, 26th-27th February 1990 [C/NM(90)8):

"The International Trading Environment: Issues and Policies", Seoul, 20th-21st March 1990 [C/NM(90)15);

"Macroeconomic Linkages and International Adjustment", Tokyo, 3rd-4th April 1990 (C/NM(90)18];

"Trade, Investment and Technology:

New Patterns and Associated

Policy Issues in a Global Economy", Paris, 9th-10th April 1990 [C/NM/(90)17].

Participants from Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand as well as OECD countries attended the Informal. Workshops. They came, in their personal capacity, from the public, business and academic sectors.

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