At that Meeting, COCI endorsed the ASEAN Plan of Action on Culture and Information which as formulated at the initiative of the ASEAN Secretariat. The Plan, which was adopted by the Fifth Meeting of the 27th ASC held in July 1994 in Bangkok, serves as the blueprint for ASEAN cooperation in cuIture and information, for the next three years. It addresses two of the foremost concerns of COCI, namely, the need to promote ASEAN awareness and identity and the need to improve COCI’s programme and project coordination, monitoring, and implementation. lt. outlines strategies and policy changes as well as the major programmes and projects which COCI and its Working Groups will pursue in accordance with the Global Thrusts and Priorities and the framework of the Plan of Action on Information adopted by the ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information in December 1993.
The Meeting observed that the indicative amount available for COCI projects for FY 1994-95 has gone down and expressed the need for COCI to carefully prioritize its projects within the fund limitation.
A total of 12 new projects under Culture, and 13 project, under Information were approved for funding and implementation in FY 1994-1995, with a total budget requirement of US$ 1,810,563 from the ASEAN Cultural Fund. These new projects represent the first batch of activities to be 'Implemented under the approved Plan of Action on CuIture and Information. They address the strategic thrusts identified in the Plan, namely, the promotion of ASEAN awareness, development of source materials on culture for ASEAN studies, development of human resources, preservation and revitalization of cultural heritage, utilization of technology, and the adoption of themes on the major concerns of ASEAN cooperation - covering the environment, cultural heritage, women, children, drugs and AIDS, ad social and economic integration.
In addition, COCI endorsed a number of new project proposals for submission to the relevant Dialogue Partners for funding consideration. These proposals which were adopted by the Fifth Meeting of the 27th ASC were:
b). Study Tour of Korean Libraries by Senior Librarians. The project has been submitted to ROK;
c). Workshop on Children’s, Book Illustration. The project has been submitted to ROK; and
d). Canadian-ASEAN Programme of Museum Professionals from Canada to Southeast Asia. The project has been submitted to Canada.
COCI has taken the first step towards commercializing some of its publications by identifying a list of twenty products to be commercialized in accordance with the approved Guidelines for the Reproduction and Commercial Dissemination of Marketable Products of ASEAN-COCI Projects. The ASEAN Secretariat has been asked to handle the commercialization of these products and it is now holding exploratory talks with some publishers.
COCI also reviewed the procedures for implementation of COCI projects and discussed problem areas encountered in the implementation of projects. As a result, COCI has agreed on a set of measures to tighten up procedures in order to ensure the timely completion of projects. These measures include the closer interface with the ASEAN Cooperation Unit of the ASEAN Secretariat in the proposal vetting process to ensure the proposals conformance with identified programme thrusts and priorities, soundness of technical design, and feasibility. Closer monitoring of progress reports would also be ensured in order that problem areas and bottlenecks could be identified early ad appropriate corrective measures be taken.
For the period under review, a total of 19 projects were completed, nine projects were on-going, and five were awaiting implementation These projects, broken down by Working Group are as follows: