ASEAN Member Countries possess an immense and colourful cultural diversity while at the same time share a common historical thread. The grouping underscores a shared heritage and builds upon a sense of community among the ten nations.

The ASEAN nations have, since 1978, been actively promoting effective cooperation in the fields of culture and information for the purpose of enhancing mutual understanding and solidarity among the peoples of ASEAN. All projects and activities in this area are also geared to promote ASEAN awareness and its standing in the international community.

This represents and supports the will and intentions of the ASEAN Leaders as they envisioned ASEAN as a community conscious of its ties of history, aware of its cultural heritage and bound by a common regional identity to promote ASEAN and its standing in the international community.

This emphasis on the cultural aspects of development was reiterated in the Bali Concord II (2003), where it was stressed that ASEAN “shall nurture talent and promote interaction among ASEAN scholars, writers, artists and media practitioners to help preserving and promoting ASEAN’s diverse cultural heritage while fostering regional identity as well as cultivating people’s awareness of ASEAN”.

Activities in the area of culture include the protection, conservation and preservation of cultural heritage, cultural promotion and the production of cultural showcases. More recently, ASEAN cultural officials have been working on issues such as human resource development in the culture sector and small and medium-sized cultural industries. Activities in the information sector involves implementing communications projects aimed at raising ASEAN awareness and to generate a positive perception of ASEAN.

One of the main bodies in ASEAN cooperation in culture and information is the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI). Established in 1978, its mission is to promote effective cooperation in the fields of culture and information. The ASEAN-COCI continuously and actively promotes ASEAN for within and outside the region through its variety of projects and activities. It is composed of representatives from national institutions like the ministry of foreign affairs, ministries of culture and information, national radio and television networks, film institutes, news agencies, cultural commission, heritage boards, museums, archives and libraries. Some universities, art and other related institutions have also been involved in COCI activities.

Cooperation in the field of culture and information continuously needs to be updated in order to ensure that its projects stay relevant to the current priorities of ASEAN and that scarce resources are utilized optimally. In addition, the supply of information on ASEAN’s current work needs to be strengthened and sustained to enable the information and media networks of ASEAN Member Countries to disseminate them.