ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh Meets with ASEAN Consuls General in Vancouver
ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh (center) is flanked by the Consuls General of ASEAN nations in Vancouver (from left): Mr. Mohd Adli Bin Abdullah of Malaysia, Mrs. Sutthiluck Sa-Ngarmangkang of Thailand, Mr. Neil Frank Ferrer of the Philippines, and Mr. Pham Manh Hai of Viet Nam.
13 June 2017 VANCOUVER — The ASEAN Consuls General in Vancouver (ACGV) met with His Excellency Le Luong Minh, ASEAN Secretary General on 31 May 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The meeting, attended by the Consuls General of the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, was the first direct exchange between the existing ASEAN missions in Vancouver and the incumbent ASEAN Secretary General.
Consul General of Thailand, Mrs. Sutthiluck Sa-Ngarmangkang, current ACGV Chair, introduced the ASEAN missions in Vancouver to the Secretary General and informed him of the various activities the ACGV has undertaken to increase awareness of ASEAN in B.C., such as the ASEAN Festival promoting the region’s culture, cuisine and crafts, ASEAN Charity Golf Tournament, ASEAN Family Picnic Day and the ACGV Newsletter circulated quarterly.
Secretary General Minh updated the ACGV on his visit to Ottawa on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of ASEAN-Canada Dialogue Relations, where he attended the Conference on ASEAN organized by Global Affairs Canada and highlighted that economics and trade play a very significant role in forging a stronger partnership between ASEAN and Canada.
Consul General Neil Ferrer of the Philippines informed Secretary General Minh of the ACGV’s other initiatives in promoting awareness and importance of ASEAN in B.C., i.e., ACGV’s engagements with the B.C. government, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF), and educational institutions such as the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Southeast Asia Research. He shared with the group APF’s recommended strategy for Canada to undertake in the ASEAN region—securing a deeper partnership with ASEAN by taking advantage of its status as a trade-friendly region with high levels of economic integration and a burgeoning middle class. This ASEAN-focused strategy is now evident with the B.C. government establishing its Trade and Investment Representative Offices in Manila and Jakarta in 2016.
For more information, visit www.vancouverpcg.dfa.gov.ph / www.vancouverpcg.org. END