The Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela, in its role as Chair of the ASEAN Committee in Caracas (ACC), hosted a ceremony to hand over the post to Indonesian Ambassador Imam Edy Muluono amid the presence of Malaysian representatives and officials from the embassies of other ASEAN member states.

Ambassador to Venezuela Le Viet Duyen speaks at a ceremony marking
ASEAN's founding in Caracas in 2020
 

Upon addressing the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to Venezuela Le Viet Duyen provided a review of the many outstanding activities that were recorded by ASEAN and the ACC in 2020, whilst highlighting the great success of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).

Despite facing complicated developments caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic both regionally and globally, the country met its dual goal for 2020 of both containing the epidemic and ensuring stable socio-economic development, recording GDP growth of 2.91% in the process. This saw the nation among the group of countries with the highest growth rate in the region and worldwide, with the Vietnamese economy growing to the fourth largest in ASEAN.

Facing a range of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, the ACC under the chairmanship of Vietnam, still managed to hold a broad range of activities during 2020 with the primary aim of strengthening ASEAN community cohesion and enhancing its status in the host country.

In response, Indonesian Ambassador Imam Edy Muluono expressed his honour at taking on the post of ACC Chairmanship and pledged to promote solidarity and bonds between embassy staff of ASEAN member states in Caracas. This will be done alongside efforts to boost the bloc’s relations with Venezuela through the implementation of more activities throughout its term.

As part of the occasion, the ACC leadership board discussed and approved the agenda for the current year, under which many activities will take place. This includes introducing the region’s culinary cultural, intensifying sports exchanges, organising ASEAN Family Day, hosting book exhibitions, and launching ASEAN film week, all of which will be done in ways that ensure safety amid the current pandemic.