Cultural Heritage Administration (hereinafter “CHA”) held the 2nd Working Committee Meeting for ASEAN-ROK Cultural Heritage Cooperation, jointly with the ASEAN Secretariat and the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, at the Nusantara Hall of the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 30-31. ICHCAP (hereinafter “Center”) is currently assisting the ASEAN-ROK Cultural Heritage Cooperation Organisation Preparatory Office of CHA (hereinafter “Preparatory Office”).

This meeting was held to follow up on the first working committee* meeting for ASEAN-ROK cultural heritage cooperation and specify the plan to implement KASI(Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative). The working committee selected a pilot project on shared heritage, especially ‘rice culture’ among five areas of cooperation agreed upon in the previous meeting: ▲creative industry, ▲capacity building and human exchange, ▲digital technology utilization, ▲shared heritage cooperation, and ▲risk management. Further, it concurred to jointly develop ‘2023 ASEAN-ROK Youth Metaverse Idea Contest’, which was proposed by Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency (BIPA) in the meeting, as a pilot project of the year and urged the active participation from ASEAN member states. With this project, ASEAN and ROK will set the foundation for a cooperation framework and strengthen mutual trust in cultural collaboration.

*A cooperation body on cultural heritage between ASEAN and the Republic of Korea that was launched in Seoul, Korea, in November 2022 and involves 24 cultural heritage officials from Korea, 10 ASEAN member states, and the ASEAN Secretariat

Along with the official meeting, CHA and the preparatory office met the Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEAN and the ASEAN Korea Cooperation Fund team to share information and to cooperate with Korean governmental institutions in Indonesia. They also met with H.E. Ekkaphab Phantavong, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, to express Korea’s willingness to cooperate with ASEAN and to request ASEAN’s positive collaboration and support. Furthermore, in order to closely cooperate with Indonesia, which is the chair of ASEAN this year and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic tie between the Republic of Korea and Indonesia, they had a meeting with the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. They conveyed the significance and the direction of the activity of the working committee and ask for Indonesia’s continuous cooperation.

This meeting will be the first case of concrete implementation of KASI (Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative) in the field of cultural heritage. The Working Committee for ASEAN-ROK Cultural Heritage Cooperation is expected to establish itself as a platform that leads ASEAN-ROK multilateral cultural heritage cooperation with practical projects.