The 14th ASEAN-Japan Joint Cooperation Committee Meeting held at the ASEAN Secretariat today underscored the commitment of both sides to further advance their partnership. The meeting welcomed the progress in realising the Implementation Plan of the 2013 Vision Statement on ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation. Approximately 95% of the action lines under the Plan have been addressed.

The meeting discussed ways to implement the Joint Statement of the 22nd ASEAN-Japan Summit on Connectivity adopted in November last year and welcomed initiatives from both sides to enhance the regional connectivity. ASEAN appreciated Japan’s continued support for ASEAN’s development including its contribution to the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund. Priorities in 2020 would be given to supporting programmes and projects in the areas of maritime cooperation, connectivity, UN Sustainable Development Goals, economic and other areas such as digital economy, MSMEs, disaster management.

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On February 27, the launch of ACHDA website was announced at the ASEAN Cultural Heritage Digital Archive Concluding Forum held at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

ACHDA website: https://heritage.asean.org/

ACHDA project aims to support the digitalization of ASEAN’s rich and diverse cultural heritages by setting up an online portal for wider public access. The Government of Japan supports this project through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF). The phase 1 of this project which started in December 2018 has digitalized cultural heritages in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Attendees to the forum included H.E. CHIBA Akira, Ambassador of Japan to ASEAN, H.E. Kung Phoak, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, Mr. Anato Kusuma Seta, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia and Mr. Tsuchihashi Ken, President and CEO of NTT DATA Asia Pacific. In his opening remarks, Ambassador Chiba stated that it was his pleasure to see the advanced Japanese technology by NTT DATA playing an indispensable role to launch this project, and he hoped the ACHDA Website would enhance interest in ASEAN culture by the people in ASEAN and the world.

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Southeast Asia's museums, galleries and libraries are preserving their most fragile collection items using 3D data technology, making them available online for anyone who wants to take a close look. Anyone can visit the website, browse the items, and zoom in and turn the 3D items around to various angles. Items currently in the archive come from six institutions in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, including the National Museum of Indonesia and the National Library of Thailand.

"I hope ASEAN citizens using the website will better appreciate the shared cultural heritage and instill in them a greater regional sense of belonging," said Deputy-Secretary General of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Kung Phoak. Digitization contributes to the preservation of old, fragile items which represent valuable cultural heritage, said Katsuichi Sonoda, senior vice president of Japanese multinational system integration company NTT Data.

NTT Data, with the generous support of the Government of Japan through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), has provided its Advanced Museum Library Archives Deposit (AMLAD) system for digital archiving, which has been used for other facilities such as the Vatican Library. NTT Data said this was the first time it had provided a 3D archiving function.

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The first digital archive of the valuable historical cultural heritage of ASEAN Member States (AMS) was launched today. The ASEAN Cultural Heritage Digital Archive (ACHDA) website showcases over 160 digitised heritage items from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The website allows visitors to have an in-depth look into the collections of museums, galleries, and libraries through three-dimensional (3D) models, images, audio recordings and valuable videos of cultural heritage of the three countries participating in the project’s first phase.

The project is supported by the Government of Japan through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF). Japan Ambassador to ASEAN Akira Chiba further mentioned that “anyone can access many cultural heritage easily and instantly through this ACHDA website anytime and anywhere.” The first phase of the project began in 2018 and the second phase, scheduled to start in mid-2020, will digitise collections from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam. All the AMS will be covered by the project in succeeding years.

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Utilizing Japan ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) and aiming to improve the efficiency of irrigation water management using the latest telemetry (TM) in the ASEAN region, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's (MARD) Vietnam Academy of Water Resources (VAWR) planned to extend “Efficiency Enhancement of Regional Irrigation Water Management” using TM that is accurate, low cost, and small as a beneficiary area of the South Nghe An Irrigation Management Corporation (IMC) (45,000 ha).

After the official approval of the project in January 2018, the installation of the TM in June and July 2019 was carried out by the Agricultural Development Consultants Association of Japan (ADCA) or South Nghe An IMC. In cooperation with IMC and VAWR, a TM was installed in the model district, and a kick-off meeting was held at the end of July for stakeholders. After the installation of TM, data is sent every 10 minutes, and the water level, rainfall and water quality data are starting to be used for improving the operation of water management.

On November 5-7, 2019, VAWR and ADCA co-hosted an ASEAN seminar organized by JAIF Project at VAWR in Hanoi and South Nghe An IMC in Nghe An Province. From ASEAN countries, 23 people from 6 countries participated. On the morning of November 5, jointly with VAWR's 60th anniversary project, co-hosted by ADCA and VAWR, as part of the JAIF Project, International Conference was held. About 150 people participated in this meeting, including the Deputy Minister of MARD, government officials, international organizations such as the World Bank, and officials from universities. ADCA gave a keynote lecture on “Data irrigation management based on data base” by introducing data from JAIF Project.

The article is available on ADCA’s website (http://www.adca.or.jp/page/j/index.html).

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