Summarizingthe CPR’s activities over the past year, PM Dung highlighted the committee’s joint efforts to increase the cooperation efficiency within ASEAN in various fields and fulfill major tasks in accelerating the implementation of the ASEAN Charter and the plans to form an ASEAN community.

The committee helped ASEAN boost its cooperation with partners to approve dialogue mechanisms in Jakarta, while increasing the ASEAN Secretariat’s capacity and successfully organising ASEAN’s major activities in Vietnam.

These outcomes were recognized by ASEAN countries as the CPR’s positive contribution to effective implementation of ASEAN’s key tasks for 2010. It is essential for the committee to continue to increase operational efficiency to push forward the establishment of an ASEAN community in the following years, emphasised PM Dung.

ASEAN Secretary-General, Surin Pitsuwan praised Vietnam for its good performance as the ASEAN Chair in 2010, while Indonesian Ambassador Ngurah- the next CPR Chair and permanent representatives from ASEAN nations applauded Vietnam’s great contributions to efficient operation of the CPR and well as shared overall success of ASEAN over the past year.

The same day, the Vietnamese Permanent Representative Mission to ASEAN in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the ASEAN Secretariat launched a programme to promote tourism and opened artistic performance which is part of ASEAN cultural exchanges.

The event was attended by ASEAN permanent representatives, ambassadors from partner countries, representatives from Indonesia’s government agencies, diplomatic corps in Jakarta and reporters.

In his address, Mr Surin Pitsuwan said he was happy to see the performance which coincided with the time when Vietnam completed its ASEAN Chairmanship in 2010- the year Vietnam did well in all fields, including culture.