| James Kon |
AS THE chair of the 7th Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Ministers Responsible for Culture and Arts (AMCA), Brunei Darussalam has played an important leadership role in the discussion of issues in the promotion of culture and arts within the Asean region, where a number of important documents were adopted after the meeting.
Brunei’s well-established role at the meeting was underscored by Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee, the Deputy Secretary General (DSG) of Asean for Socio-Cultural Community (pictured below), who attended the meeting in Brunei, and spoke to the media on Thursday afternoon.
He said, “We have adopted the strategic work plan on culture and art from 2016 to 2025 that will serve as guidance for us on implementing a number of action relating to culture and arts, and we also endorsed the two important documents that will be presented at the Asean Summit this year in Lao PDR.”
Explaining the two important documents, he said, “The Bandar Seri Begawan Declaration on Culture and Arts is to promote art as an identity toward a dynamic, harmonious Asean Community. This initiative was taken up by Brunei to further encourage people in Asean to be more culturally aware of each country and to build a sense of ownership as citizens of Asean.”
PHOTO BY JAMES KON
The other declaration “is the Vientiane Declaration on reinforcing culture cooperation in Asean, which looks at enhancing regional efforts to protect and preserve cultural heritage, Asean’s role in protecting tangible heritage and the equally important intangible heritage like music, art and performances.”
“One of the frequently highlighted issues is the idea of how we can build better understanding through art and culture as a means to prevent conflict, and to promote the culture of peace and tolerance of each other’s’ differences through the importance of youth engagement.”
“By taking up the chairmanship of AMCA, Bandar Seri Begawan has been declared as the Asean City of Culture and in the next two year,
“Brunei can expect more culture activities in promoting Brunei. Already China, Japan and Korea have expressed interest in strengthening collaboration with Brunei, through the East Asia City of Culture as well.”
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