MCYS hosts 13th SOCA Meeting
| James Kon |
ONE of Brunei’s Asean Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Flagship projects is the Asean Youth Volunteers Corps which is a platform for young people, especially professionals, to perform voluntary community services in their area of expertise, and offer them the opportunity to help the less fortunate in other Asean countries.
This was revealed during the 13th Senior Officials Committee for Asean Socio-Cultural Community (SOCA) meeting which took place at the Mangrove Paradise Resort yesterday.
Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Hamid, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, chairing the meeting
The 13th SOCA meeting in progress
Brunei delegates from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. – PHOTOS: JAMES KON
Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Hamid bin Hj Mohd Jaafar, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, chaired the meeting which was attended by the Heads of SOCA from Asean member countries. The Deputy Secretary General of Asean for ASCC was also present.
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of Brunei Darussalam, as the national coordinator for ASCC, will be hosting and chairing the ASCC and SOCA meetings throughout 2013.
In the meeting, officials from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports delivered the details of Asean Youth Volunteers Corps, whereby the rationale for Youth Volunteerism is that youths can engage or get connected with the community at large. The youth volunteers can benefit in terms of receiving new knowledge and experience, camaraderie, self-confidence and leadership skills.
The objectives of the project are “to gather young professionals to provide services in areas of their expertise, to develop a sense of responsibility, obligations and duty towards Asean amongst the young volunteers, to develop and empower the young volunteers with leadership and other skills, as well as to promote awareness of Asean amongst the communities through exchange of knowledge and understanding of culture”.
The proposal can be implemented within a specific time-frame.
The 13th SOCA meeting also marks the opening of three SOCA meetings, which will be held this year. Brunei has informed the Heads of SOCA from all Asean members countries on the focus area for the meetings in 2013 namely Youth, Culture, Education, Mid-Term Review of ASCC Blueprint, ASCC Dana (fund), Concept note on Regional Policy Advocacy on Social Protection, Religious Harmony.
The meeting also discussed about the draft term of reference for SOCA and Draft TOR for an independent study for Timor Leste’s accession. The discussions will be carried forward to the 3rd Asean Coordinating Council working group meeting.
