PH Participates in ASEAN Workshop on Cross-Pillar Coordination

ASEAN-Philippines Executive Director Marian Jocelyn Tirol-Ignacio (right) led the Philippine delegation to the Workshop on Promoting Cross-Pillar Coordination composed of officials from DTI and DSWD. Representatives from DOST, TESDA, PCTC and NYC also tuned in to the workshop.

MANILA 18 August 2020 — Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) organized a Workshop on Promoting Cross-Pillar Coordination on 13 August 2020 to discuss measures to enhance cross-pillar cooperation. The workshop, hosted by the ASEAN Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) and the ASEAN Secretariat, was held via video conference.  The outcomes of the workshop will be submitted to the Joint Consultative Meeting (JCM) in October and the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) in November 2020.

The timely workshop addressed the increasing multiplicity and growing complexity of cross-pillar issues at a regional level requiring increasingly harmonized and effective action among ASEAN’s three Community Pillars.  Officials of the ASEAN Community Pillars and ASEAN Secretariat presented the emergence of cross-pillar issues and highlighted the accomplishments of the CPR in facilitating a consolidated regional response to them. Measures recommended at the workshop included the identification of the most critical cross-pillar issues to be prioritized in implementing the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, and strengthening the coordination, communication and responsive actions on cross-pillar issues across sectoral bodies and among ASEAN Member States (AMS). 

The Philippines emphasized a responsive, strategic and holistic approach, shared its successful practice of cross-pillar coordination at the national level, and advocated a balance between the creation of ad-hoc cross-pillar and cross-sectoral committees and  enhancing the role of existing coordination mechanisms within ASEAN.

The Workshop also looked into case studies and lessons learned from ASEAN’s cross-pillar cooperation in matters pertaining to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and on transboundary haze.

The Philippines shared the country’s experience in promoting cross-pillar coordination at the national level through the ASEAN Matters Technical Board (AMTB) which meets regularly to set and align national  priorities with those of ASEAN’s, while determining relevant committees/bodies to discuss the progress in these priorities.

ASEAN-Philippines Executive Director Marian Jocelyn Tirol-Ignacio led the Philippine delegation composed of the Philippine Permanent Representative to ASEAN Ambassador Noel Eugene Eusebio M. Servigon, and officials from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Representatives from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Philippine Center on Transnational Crime (PCTC) and National Youth Commission (NYC) also tuned in to the workshop. Participants to the workshop included leaders of ASEAN Community Pillars, Senior Official Meetings (SOM) Leaders, representatives from ASEAN Sectoral Bodies, and the ASEAN Committee of Permanent Representatives. END

Philippine Permanent Representative to ASEAN Ambassador Noel Eugene Eusebio M. Servigon (right) is tasked with promoting cross-pillar coordination on issues of importance to the Philippines and ASEAN.

Attendees from ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting, ASEAN  Socio-cultural Community Council (SOCA), ASEAN Senior Economic Officials’ Meeting (SEOM), and Committee of Permanent Representatives