Steps should be taken, however, to enhance ASEAN-wide appreciation, especially among the youth, for such valuable products of the region's loom technology as the ikat, songket, barong and sarong. Further application of modern technology and training programs would also greatly help national industries producing traditional textiles.

This much could be gleaned from the Exhibition and Symposium held in connection with the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN which coincided with the convening of the Second Informal Meeting of ASEAN Heads of State or Government in Kuala Lumpur last December.

Billed as a comprehensive show on textile weaving "From Loom to Computer," the exhibition provided a survey of materials, equipment and techniques used both in the past and at present. At the symposium, on the other hand, experts from various institutions in ASEAN countries discussed textile weaving traditions in their respective countries, interregional influences in textile design and the role of textile in the economic and social life of their respective nations.

Datin Seri Dr. Siti Hasmah vt. Hj. Mohd. Ali, wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, officiated at the formal opening of this major Cultural Heritage event of 1997.

Organized by the Department of Museums and Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism of Malaysia and sponsored by the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information, the exhibition and symposium drew the participation of textile experts and weavers as well as cultural authorities from all nine ASEAN member countries.

After the exhibition, each national delegation brought home samples of traditional textile products from all the other member countries as comparative specimens. Some of these will find their way to the museums of ASEAN countries.

A number of publications on ASEAN traditional textiles based on the exhibit materials and the presentations and discussions at the symposium are expected to be published as a follow-up to this undertaking.