Book depicts visions for ASEAN community

By Rachel Lee

The ASEAN-Korea Centre has published a book titled “ASEAN Community, at the Heart of Asia.”

Written by leading ASEAN experts in Korea, the publication, released o Feb. 29, summarizes what the ASEAN Community is and its vision.

The ASEAN Community — consisting of an Economic, Political-Security, and Socio-Cultural Community — was launched last year with the aims of “One Vision,” “One Identity” and “One Community.”

“Although ASEAN launched its ambitious community at the end of 2015, nothing much has been known about it neither in Korea nor in ASEAN,” said ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Young-sun.

“In publishing this boo, the ASEAN-Korea Center, the only international organization dealing with ASEAN in Korea, aims to promote the profile of and raise awareness of ASEAN and its community among the Korean public.”

The book details ASEAN’s progress since it was established in 1967 to the formation of the ASEAN Community.

The book also looks at the community’s future and implications for ASEAN-Korea relations through the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, which ASEAN declared in Kuala Lumpur last November.

The organization held a book launch with authors Yoon Jin-pyo, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University; Lee Choong-yul, a professor at the Korea University; and Choi Kyung-hee, a doctor at the Seoul National University Asia Center.

At the book concert, the writers talked about the publication and the meaning and values of the ASEAN Community with guests and ASEAN Ambassadors in Korea.

The book will be distributed to relevant organizations and libraries in Korea and abroad.

The ASEAN-Korea Centre is an intergovernmental organization established in 2009 with an aim to promote exchanges among Korea and the ten ASEAN Member States.