28 December 2015 – Charge d’Affaires Raisa A. Mabayo of the Philippine Embassy in Santiago was one of the guest speakers at the ASEAN Luncheon Talk: Bridging the Pacific Gap held on November 30 at the Malaysian Embassy Building in Avenida Tajamar, Las Condes, Santiago City. The talk was organized by the Embassy of Malaysia, which currently serves as the Chairman of the ASEAN Committee in Santiago (ACS).

Ms. Mabayo’s talk centered on the establishment of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Blueprint and the need to promote ASEAN as a unified identity and as a community in Chile and South America through further engagement of the ACS with both the government and the communities. She emphasized the need for stronger people-to-people exchanges and the need for the ACS to work harder towards bringing ASEAN into the mainstream.

Malaysian Ambassador Dato’ Dr. Mohamad Rameez Yahaya delivered the welcome remarks, during which he gave a background on ASEAN and ACS activities in Chile. Other speakers included representatives from the Embassy of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Viet Nam, who each talked about the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint and the ASEAN Community as a whole.

Among the guests were businessmen and members of the academe, including Mr. Manfred Wilhelmy von Woff, Executive Director of the Fundacion Chilena del Pacifico, who also shared his views on the importance of ASEAN to Chile. 

The ACS is composed of members of the five ASEAN members that maintain Missions in Chile, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. Chairmanship of the group rotates every four months, from a previous six-month period, and will be assumed by the Philippines after Malaysia beginning April 2016. END