Acronyms at ASEAN meet baffle media

MANILA (AFP) - There may be AIDA and even some FANS -- but the jumble of ASEAN acronyms isn't music to anyone's ears.

For the hundreds of reporters who can't tell their AASROC from their ELTO, the blizzard of bureaucracy at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings can be pretty daunting.

Organisers have handed out a cheat sheet with some of the most widely used terms, but the only way to get the full story -- from AADCP to ZOPFAN -- is on the official ASEAN website, where there are 244 just beginning with "A" alone.

The list includes two AADCPs -- ASEAN Australia Development Cooperation and the ASEAN Aquaculture Development and Coordinating Programme, of course.

There's ACCSQ and ACWGDC, JETRO and JLSAP -- not to mention PLANTI, SEAMEO and VALENTE. There are three different TWGs, and even a CAMMY.

Indeed, there are enough acronyms to make almost any newcomer say AWGEE. Maybe one day the bureaucrats will have a better IDEA.