ASEAN holds policy dialogue on regional circular economy, freepik.com

Jakarta – The ASEAN Secretariat, in collaboration with the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), have held the Multi-Stakeholder Policy Dialogue on Empowering ASEAN For Circular Economy online.

The policy dialogue brought together stakeholders from various sectors across the region to share ASEAN’s work on circular economy, assess existing practices in the region, and determine expectations.

In his opening remarks, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Satvinder Singh highlighted the critical role of circular economy in reducing carbon emission to help address climate change, and the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration to facilitate implementation of circular economy in the region.

The dialogue underscored the importance of aligning circular economy measures with ASEAN’s environmental commitments and with the ASEAN taxonomy. Among the key challenges raised were shifting producer and consumer behaviour towards circular practices, lack of markets for secondary goods, fragmented actions across the region, and limited technical capacity.

The outcomes of the policy dialogue will serve as reference for the development of the Work Programme to Support the Implementation of the Framework for Circular Economy for the AEC. The Work Programme aims to facilitate knowledge sharing, identify areas for possible collaborations, and provide policy recommendations to integrating circular economy into ASEAN’s community-building efforts.