The Senior Officials’ Committee for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community holds an online meeting on June 22 (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - The 28th meeting of theSenior Officials’ Committee for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (SOCA) washeld via video conference under the chair of the Ministry of Labour, Invalidsand Social Affairs (MoLISA) on June 22.
The meeting was attended by heads of membercountries’ SOCA delegations, the ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General in charge ofthe ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, and the ASEAN Secretariat.
Addressing the gathering, Director of MoLISA’sDepartment of International Cooperation and head of the Vietnamese SOCAdelegation Nguyen Manh Cuong said 2020 is an important year for the bloc as allof its specialised bodies have been reviewing activities implemented in thecurrent period and preparing to build work plans for the next phase so as toachieve the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.
This is also a special year for social andcultural activities as all member states have been hit by COVID-19, he said,noting that the pandemic has affected not only people’s health but also theirlivelihoods, especially vulnerable groups.
As ASEAN Chair in 2020, Vietnam has beencoordinating closely with the ASEAN Secretariat and other member countries toactively and proactively carry out activities and initiatives in response tothe pandemic’s complex developments, matching the adopted theme of “Cohesiveand Responsive”, Cuong noted.
Participants discussed priority activities and fieldsfor 2020. They agreed to push ahead with effectively carrying out specialisedwork plans and reviewing the implementation of those plans over the last fiveyears, to assist the mid-term review of the implementation of the ASEANSocio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025 at the national and regional levels.
The review report is to be submitted to the 37thASEAN Summit, slated for November.
The officials also highlighted the need to speedup discussions with Timor-Leste on relevant specialised issues so as to learnmore about the country’s readiness and capacity to meet ASEAN’s expectations.
The Vietnamese delegation also gave participantsan insight into its priorities during the 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship, including interms of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, to help secure the support andconsensus of member nations.
Accordingly, Vietnam is set to promotediscussions on the priority areas of labour and human resources development,social welfare and development, healthcare, communications and information,ASEAN culture, youth, the environment and climate change, and the mid-termreview of the implementation of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint.
During the session, the ASEAN Secretariatprovided a summary of activities being carried out or planned for the Communitythat are in line with regional leaders’ decisions and statements on a collectiveresponse to the pandemic.
Participants also agreed to submit two documentsto the 23rd meeting of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council, so that thecouncil will later propose them to ASEAN summits for approval: an ASEANstatement on human resources development in a changing world of work, and thereference provisions of the ASEAN Council for Technical and VocationalEducation and Training.
The Socio-Cultural Community is one of the threepillars of the ASEAN Community, together with the Political-Security Communityand the Economic Community./.
VNA
