Vientiane (VNA) – The 51st meeting of the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (ASEAN-COCI 51) convened in Vientiane, Laos on November 8, focusing on evaluating the results of regional cooperation in culture and information as well as 🧸seekiꦕng new partnership initiatives.

In his opening remarks, Lao Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Savankhone Razmountry underscored the importance of culture and information affiliation activities in the region. As the oldest institution of ASEAN, ASEAN-COCI has significantly contributed to raising people’s awareness of the bloc and promoting ASEAN identities to the world, while preserving heritages and traditional cultural values of member countries and increasing the cultural diversity in the region, he said. Savankhone noted that as one of the three key pillars of the ASEAN, the ASEAN Social-Cultural Community (ASCC) has seen numerous achievements. The 15 th meeting of the ASCC Council in Luang Prabang, Laos and the 16 th meeting in Vientiane in 2016 were successful with the adoption of a series of important documents, he said. This year is the first year of the ASEAN Community, which is also suitable time for the association to foster coordination in realising the ASEAN Community Vision 2015 and the ASCC Blueprint 2015, he added. During the two-day event, participants will review the progress of underway culture and information projects, and approve new ones proposed by member countries while giving new initiatives and orientations for the expansion of cooperation with ASEAN partners in the future. They will also discuss new ideas of cooperation and launch events to mark the 50 th anniversary of ASEAN in 2017.-VNA