Senior Officials Committee for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council (SOCA) Leaders yesterday held their 30th Meeting of the Senior Officials Committee for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (30th SOCA Meeting) through video conferencing.
Permanent Secretary (Community and Culture) at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Hajah Nor Ashikin binti Haji Johari as Chair of SOCA chaired the meeting.
Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Kung Phoak, SOCA leaders and delegations were also present.
The 30th SOCA was held as a preparation for the 25th ASCC Council Meeting to be held today.
Hajah Nor Ashikin highlighted that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic taught ASEAN to always be ready. Thus, prioritisation is the key, focussing on ASEAN’s cohesive journey to resilience, and ensuring the well-being of ASEAN’s people taken care of, to build one ASEAN community. She also called on the SOCA leaders and the ASEAN Secretariat to look into ways to consolidate and strengthen ASEAN’s efforts, including renewing those committed to in the past and reinforcing them through stronger cross-pillar, cross-sectoral collaboration. In turn, to assure ASEAN’s partners that ASEAN is an organisation that is sustainable and resilient.
The meeting supported Brunei’s ASEAN 2021 Chairmanship, guided by the theme ‘We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper’, and agreed to work closely, together with the ASCC sectoral bodies, to deliver ASEAN’s collective commitment to care for its people and prepare for further challenges and opportunities, with the goal of ensuring that the whole ASEAN community can sustainably prosper.
