Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has urged ministers of the ASCC Council to exert effort to transform challenges into opportunities for development, while tuning diversity into the spirit of one ASEAN Community and cultural differences into shared assets in accordance with collective ongoing efforts towards a caring and sharing community for ASEAN people.

Addressing at the opening ceremony of the 16thMeeting of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) in Vientiane yesterday, Prime Minister Thongloun highlighted several challenges including security challenges, both traditional and nontraditional such as terrorism, pandemic diseases, climate change, air pollution, and natural disasters including floods and earthquakes, which have caused enormous loss of human life, damage to property, and loss of valuable historic cultural heritage which cannot be completely assessed or quantified. 

The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) is one of the important three pillars which has made a lot of key achievements and contributed significantly to supporting the implementation of the ASCC Blueprints during the past years and shall move forward more actively in supporting the realization of the new ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

ASEAN is focusing its efforts on the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the three community Blueprints which will provide direction for ASEAN in further strengthening and advancing the ASEAN Community over the next ten years.

“I am pleased to note that good progress has been made in the implementation of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint, particularly as almost all relevant sectoral bodies under the ASCC have completed and adopted their respective work plans for 2016-2020 which are in accordance with the ASCC Blueprint 2025,” said the Prime Minister.

The success of the 15th Meeting of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community held in early June 2016 in Luang Prabang and the convening of the 16th meeting of the ASCC Council reflect the commitment of the ministers of the ASCC Council to work together to consider important documents for submission to the ASEAN Summit which will be held early this month. 

The documents meet the needs of and real situation in ASEAN, as well as provide great contributions to the implementation and realization of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025.

“Our meeting today is to follow up on the outcomes of the previous ASCC Council Meeting which was held in Luang Prabang in June. I strongly believe that through kind consideration, consultation and active participation on the part of all of us, as well as ASEAN colleagues and the ASEAN Secretariat, the meeting today will be crowned as a great success,” said Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Mr Bosengkham Vongdara.

ASEAN is a region that is uniquely characterized by diverse cultures, languages, and religions. Despite these differences, the people of ASEAN member states enjoy living together in harmony and solidarity, in a caring and sharing society, together preserving and promoting cultural uniqueness and the traditions of individual ASEAN member states.

Source:
courtesy of KPL NEWS AGENCY

by Phetsamone

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