ASEAN Civil Society Conference 2013 in Brunei

From April 6-8, the ASEAN Civil Society Conference and ASEAN People's Forum 2013 (ACSC/APF 2013), themed "ASEAN: Building the Future Together," took place in Banda Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei.

This event was organized to enhance understanding, connection, and solidarity among all citizens and cooperation between communities and governments within the bloc, towards the common goal of building the ASEAN Community by 2015.

(Source: Inquirer)

ACSC/APF 2013, organized by the Brunei Women's Council with the support of Civil Society Organizations (CSCs) in Brunei, attracted a large number of CSC representatives from ASEAN member countries.

In his opening remarks at the conference, Brunei's Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Pehin bin Haji Abdullah, stated that the successful establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015 depends significantly on the active participation and contributions of all citizens and civil society in ASEAN, including youth, women's and non-governmental organizations, as well as on coordination and cooperation between governments and all citizens and civil society.

He emphasized that governments, as well as all citizens and civil society in ASEAN, need to focus their efforts on achieving common goals such as eradicating poverty, promoting education, creating jobs, improving healthcare, and protecting the environment sustainably.

He stated that civil society can support the bridging of gaps in ASEAN through mutual assistance and cooperation, building ASEAN identity, and regional cooperation networks to improve services for the poor, illiterate, sick, and vulnerable. Furthermore, civil society can also cooperate in human resource development through education, training, technology, regional initiatives on disaster mitigation, and people-to-people engagement.

The ACSC/APF has become an annual meeting of representatives of the people and civil societies in the ASEAN region; it is a forum to raise and discuss multilateral issues within the bloc to strengthen the solidarity, voices, concerns, demands and recommendations of all people and civil societies, towards a common home - the ASEAN Community by 2015.

The theme “ASEAN: Building the Future Together” for ACSC/APF 2013 was chosen by the host country to support the theme of the ASEAN Summit 2013, “Our People, Our Future.”

The ACSC/APF 2013, with its eight plenary sessions, focused on exchanging and discussing common issues such as building a shared future, peace, mutual understanding, the ASEAN Vision, and the participation of women and youth, as well as issues related to ACSC/APF such as the recommendation mechanism, participation in environmental protection, and the building of the three main pillars of ASEAN: political-security, economic, and socio-cultural. The meeting adopted the ACSC/APF 2013 Joint Statement and transferred the responsibility of organizing ACSC/APF to Myanmar, which will assume the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014.

According to (VNA) - DT