MALAYSIA PROPOSES FUND FOR ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL ACTIVITIES - RAIS

From R. Ravichandran

DA NANG (Vietnam), Aug 16 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has proposed that the Asean
Socio-Cultural Community Council (ASCC) set up a fund to carry out programmes,
particularly cultural programmes, involving member countries, Information
Communication and Culture Minister Dr Rais Yatim said.

The proposal was well received by Asean members who suggested that the fund
should not only come from contributions from member countries but also from
their private sectors, he said.

"Without sufficient fund, we won't be able to push ahead with our
socio-cultural activities and they will remain on the negotiation table," he
told Bernama and RTM journalists at the end of the Fourth ASCC meeting here,
Monday.

He added that the Asean Secretariat in Jakarta would now look into the
matter and would inform member countries of the necessary follow through
actions.

Without the fund, he said, cultural activities of member countries would be
confined to only within their respective national framework and could not
proliferate under the bigger Asean umbrella.

"It is for this reason that we proposed the setting up of the fund and maybe
sometime in the future, it can be endorsed at the Asean Summit," he said.

What was important, he said, was for the fund to be accepted in its
conceptual form at the Asean Summit in Jakarta, next year.

Expressing satisfaction over the meeting's outcome, Rais said the fund
proposal was for the benefit of the grouping, saying it was important for member
countries to also look into cultural aspects in the Asean context.

Malaysia, he said, supported other proposals forwarded by member countries
but stressed on the importance of taking into account their humanity,
civilisation and cultural aspects.

In this respect, he said, Malaysia conveyed its views on the need to promote
human connectivity among the peoples of Asean.


Malaysia, he said, had also conveyed its views on the need for the ASCC to
think of ways how Asean could develop its ICT contents based on the region's own
point of views and not rely on contents from the West.

Rais said Malaysia also forwarded the idea for creative projects for the
grouping, which would bring together Asean writers and documentary producers to
come up with works on their respective countries.

On Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's suggestion when opening the
meeting today that the ASCC Blueprint should be incorporated into the national
development plans of member countries, Rais said it was a practical suggestion.

"When I present the report to the cabinet later on, I will take such views
into account," he said.
-- BERNAMA


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