On the occasion of ASEAN-Japan Economic Co-Creation Forum held on December 16^th to celebrate the 50th commemorative year of the ASEAN-Japan relations, ASEAN-Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC), Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) (herein after referred as "we") affirmed the following points:

We acknowledge the importance of achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth, energy security and decarbonization simultaneously, as well as the importance of fair and just energy transition toward carbon neutrality/net zero emissions through various and practical pathways, taking into account different circumstances of each country in Asia.

We emphasize the importance to accelerate our efforts to decarbonize across all sectors through various technologies, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydrogen, ammonia and CCUS, while taking into account circumstances of each sector, promoting transition finance.

Based on this recognition, we welcome the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) platform, which aims to bring together Asian countries to work together to advance clean energy transition in a manner compatible with economic growth and energy security.

We expect that the AZEC platform will further encourage and develop our activities to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the ASEAN region, building on our existing efforts such as ASEAN BAC's ASEAN Net ZERO Hub, Japanese international cooperation based on Keidanren Carbon Neutrality Action Plan, and ERIA's development of roadmaps for energy transitions and acceleration of transition finance under the Asia Energy Transition Initiative (AETI).

Under the AZEC platform, we will work to promote the formation of tangible projects for decarbonization among AZEC partner countries. To this end, we will work together by exchanging information, holding seminars, and dispatching missions, with the support of ERIA. We also agree to inaugurate AZEC Advocacy Group, consisting of representatives from ASEAN-Japan relations, ASEAN-BAC, Keidanren, ERIA and other experts in Asia, which aims to continuously support the above-mentioned activities, and provide advice and endorsement to our joint effort, with ERIA serving as the secretariat.