Doha / Information Office / September 17

The State of Qatar will assume the chairmanship of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) for 2019, with the unanimous approval of the 34 Member States.

The State of Qatar, which is one of the 18 founding members, will receive the chairmanship ceremonies during its hosting of the Ministerial Meeting of the ACD Member States in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

In the framework of its chairmanship of the ACD in 2019, Qatar will host a meeting of foreign ministers of ACD member states, a business forum and two workshops on education and culture.

The State of Qatar had hosted the 5th meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue on May 23-24, 2006.

The Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) was inaugurated in June 2001 in Cha-Am, Thailand, where 18 Asian Foreign Ministers met together for the first time. The ACD is a continent-wide forum aims to constitute the missing link in Asia by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian Community without duplicating other organizations or creating a bloc against others.

A key principle is to consolidate Asian strengths and fortify Asia's competitiveness by maximizing the diversity and rich resources evident in Asia.

ACD Ministers held ministerial meetings to discuss ACD developments, before the State of Kuwait organized the historic summit in 2012 to promote the objective for which the ACD was established, calling for holding a periodic summit to discuss issues of regional cooperation and ways to enhance and solidify Asian unity.

Member states proposed to be prime movers in 20 areas of cooperation, such as energy, agriculture, biotechnology, tourism, poverty alleviation, IT development, e-education and financial cooperation.