ASEAN Festival opens in Ha Noi

The event features the active participation and response of embassies and representatives from ASEAN members, creating conditions for the member nations to enhance close coordination for a diverse and united ASEAN community.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said that over the past 50 years, ASEAN has experienced many stages of development and overcome many difficulties and challenges to enhance cohesion and become the successful ASEAN community it is today.

The bloc continues to strengthen relations via the three main pillars of Politics-Security, Economics, and Culture-Society to affirm the position and prestige of a leading regional organisation, he added.

The Minister also emphasised that the ASEAN Festival aims to introduce the process of formation and development of the land, people and culture of ASEAN member countries.

The three-day festival will feature a wide variety of activities, including an introduction of ASEAN’s establishment and progress over the past half century; a display of postage stamps depicting the ASEAN Community; an exhibition of artistic photographs on the land, people, climate change and ethnic groups in the ASEAN bloc; an exhibition of press photos on ASEAN; in addition to screenings of documentary films and reports on the culture of ASEAN countries.

At the ceremony, Maria Cynthia Pelayo, Consul General at the Philippine Embassy in Ha Noi, said that as a centre for cultural heritage preservation and introduction of cultural diversity, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology has promoted the sharing and understanding of Vietnamese cultural heritages and Southeast Asian ethnic groups, thereby enhancing the diverse cultural identity of ASEAN.

Also at the opening ceremony, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs presented the publication on ‘ASEAN and its cultural and social communities’ to the Museum, the National Library and the National University’s Library.