Hanoi (VNA)🎶– In Vietnam’s capacity as the ASEAN Chair, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen QuocDung on July 20 chaired an online inter-sectoral meeting of ASEAN seniorofficials to discuss orientations to building post-2025 ASEAN Community Vision.

Attending the eventwere ASEAN senior officials from specialised agencies on the pillars ofPolitical-Security, Economic and Socio-Cultural Communities, and ASEAN ViceSecretary Generals.

🧔 Speaking at the event, Dung shared Vietnam’s initiative onorientations to building ASEAN Community Vision following 2025, saying that itis a continuation of Thailand’s efforts during its tenure as the ASEAN Chair 2019,including working closely with the EconomicResearch Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) to outline the ASEANVision 2040.

On theback of discussions within the framework of the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) held in the centralcity of Da Nang in March, the meeting offered recommendations onorientations to building post-2025 ASEAN Community Vision to submit to the ASEANCoordinating Council and the 37th ASEAN Summit later this year. Delegates shared the view that thepost-2025 ASEAN Community Vision should be inclusive and closely links with cooperationcontents in the three pillars, with a focus on digital transformation andeconomic development, inclusive development, rapid and effective response toemerging challenges, people-oriented and people-centred approaches, andimprovement of ASEAN’s central role and international stature, among others. They suggestedimproving the efficiency of ASEAN apparatus, inter-sectoral and inter-pillarcoordination, and enhancing the participation of all sectors in Communitybuilding. Representatives fromspecialised agencies on the three pillars welcomed Vietnam’s initiative to holdthe meeting and offered various opinions on the process. In his speech, Dungproposed that ASEAN should pursue a progressive approach to gradually step upeconomic linkage, thus laying a foundation to determine the next linkage formsof the community. Amid the rapid andcomplicated developments in the region and the world, he called on the bloc tocontinue proving its central role as a driving force to accelerate dialogues, build trust for the sake of regional peace, security and stability, and moreactively and effectively cope with challenges. ASEAN needs toensure inclusive approach, even and sustainable development among regions, nationsand different sectors of the society so that no one will be left behind, hesaid, adding that the grouping should pay full attention to closely linkingsub-regional development with the common development of the ASEAN Community,building a people-oriented and people-centred Community. According to him,the mid-term review of ASEAN Community Vision 2025 should be taken into accountwhen it comes to discussing post-2025 ASEAN Community Vision. As scheduled,Vietnam will hold more consultation conferences to collect feedback on theeffort to submit to the 37th ASEAN Summit in November 2020./.