JAKARTA, 18 June 2020 – The 15th Coordinating Conference on the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) convened yesterday with the participation of over 100 delegates from the Senior Officials’ Committee for the ASCC, representatives of ASCC sectoral bodies, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, as well as ASEAN regional entities.
ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General for ASCC Kung Phoak and Deputy Director-General of the International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Viet Nam Dr. Ha Thi Minh Duc co-chaired the virtual conference. The Chairs of SEOM, ASEAN SOM and AICHR were also present at the conference.
In his opening remarks, Phoak emphasised that with a wide spectrum of participants representing the three pillars and entities associated with ASEAN, the conference provides regional knowledge and wisdom to ensure that ASEAN is relevant and beneficial to all.
“Even during this trying time with the ongoing and unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, ASEAN has remained on its course to deliver people-oriented and people-centred initiatives,” said Phoak.
In her remarks, Dr. Duc highlighted that 2020 is a pivotal year for ASEAN. This year, all sectoral bodies and three ASEAN pillars are conducting a mid-term review of the ASCC Blueprint 2025 implementation, a review on the sectoral work plan 2016-2020 and are also developing the work plan for the next five-year period.
The conference was briefed on the mid-term review’s state of play and the ASCC sectoral bodies work plans’ status of implementation as well as emerging priorities for the next five years.
ASEAN’s collective efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic was also discussed at the conference. The conference commended the active joint efforts being undertaken by the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Health and other sectoral bodies and entities to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and possible development of post-pandemic recovery plan.
‘’As ASEAN is subject to enormous and unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting all aspects of life, Viet Nam, as the Chair of ASEAN 2020, hopes that all sectoral bodies, through the coordination of their Chair and Vice Chair, will continue to make efforts to promote cooperation, cohesion and proactive activities to complete the goals and priorities in this year,” concluded Dr. Duc.
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined ASEAN on 7 January 1984, followed by Viet Nam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.Menu - WHAT WE DO
ASEAN organs always strive to achieve ASEAN’s goals and objectives, the Secretary-General of ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat shall be functioned as coordinating Secretariat to help facilitate effective decision-making withing and amongst ASEAN bodies. In addition, each Member State shall appoint a Permanent Representative to liaise with Secretary-General of ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat
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ASEAN shall develop friendly relations and mutually beneficial dialogues, cooperation and partnerships with countries and sub-regional, regional and international organisations and institutions. This includes external partners, ASEAN entities, human rights bodies, non-ASEAN Member States Ambassadors to ASEAN, ASEAN committees in third countries and international organisations, as well as international / regional organisations.
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The rodmap for an ASEAN Community (2009-2015) was declared by the leaders in 2009. The ASEAN Community, anchored on three community pillars: Political-Security Community, Economic Community, Socio-Cultural Community was launched in 2015. The ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together was introduced in 2015 as a Post-2015 Vision. It comprises the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, the ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint 2025, the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025 and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025
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