14th ASCC Meeting To Put Final Touches On ASCC Blueprint 2025

By Voon Miaw Ping and Balqis Jamaludin KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- ASEAN ministers in charge of social and cultural affairs will meet here Wednesday, in the final preparatory groundworks ahead of the 27th ASEAN Summit next month for the adoption of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Blueprint 2025. Tourism and Culture Ministry Secretary-General Dr Ong Hong Peng said high on the agenda at the 14th ASCC meeting Wednesday will be detailed discussion on the draft of the ASCC blueprint. "ASEAN Ministers to the ASCC will fine-tune and later endorse this important draft before it is presented to ASEAN leaders during the 27th ASEAN Summit," he told Bernama after chairing the 19th Senior Officials Committee for the ASCC (SOCA) Wednesday. ASCC Blueprint 2025 is a 10-year roadmap for community building from 2016 that engages and benefits the ASEAN peoples. The document highlights five main elements and strategies to further nurture a more inclusive, committed, sustainable, resilient and dynamic ASEAN Community. Ong said the SOCA meeting also took stock of the achievements made by ASEAN members under the ASCC Blueprint 2015. ASCC Blueprint 2015 outlined 339 action plans under six main areas, namely human development, social welfare and protection, social justice and rights, environmental sustainability, building an ASEAN identity and narrowing the development gap. ASCC, one of ASEAN Community's three pillars, is aimed at realising an ASEAN Community that is people-oriented and socially responsible with a view to achieving enduring solidarity and unity among the peoples and ASEAN Member States. It seeks to forge a common identity and build a caring and sharing society which is inclusive and where the well-being, livelihood and welfare of the peoples are enhanced. The other two pillars are ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Political-Security Community. Along with the political and security blueprint and the economic blueprint, these documents will be adopted by ASEAN leaders during the 27th ASEAN Summit next month and will become a single document known as 'ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together'. This document will chart the course for a stronger and more unified ASEAN Community in the next decade. -- BERNAMA