Put a stamp on it

THERE WERE CHEERS all round last Monday as Thailand Post announced Vietnam as the winner of the official stamp and official postmark contest to welcome the Asean Economic Community, which gets underway later this year,

Two pigeons perching atop a colourful flower shaped from 10 Asean flags, which itself sits on folded hands in the middle of golden rice fields will be seen on postcards and envelopes of all the member countries later this year.

The flower represents unity, the pigeons symbolise peace and the golden rice implies the prosperity of agriculture in the region. The winner takes home US$1,000.

The winner in the official postmark category also hailed from Vietnam. The design shows the Asean logo surrounded by three curved lines – signifying economics, politics and cultures. The logo has the words “Asean Community” on the top and the issue date reads “First Day of Issue 8/08/2015”. The winner takes home a reward of $500.

Both designs reflect the unity of the Asean Community according to the motto “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”. The stamp will be officially issued on August 8 in each member country state to celebrate the grouping’s 48th anniversary.

“It was an honour for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to accept the first prize in both categories of the Asean Stamp Design Contest,” Nguyen Hoang Hoc, Deputy Director Department of Post, Ministry of Information and Communication said at the announcement ceremony.

“The Asean emblem on the postmark is circled by three lines standing for the strengthening of political stability, economic stability as well as social and cultural ties in the Asean community.”

The winners were chosen from 30 stamps and 25 postmarks submitted by the 10 member countries by a judging committee made up of 10 postal representatives from the member states and three judges from neutral organisations, namely the Universal Postal Union (UPU), Asian-Pacific Postal Union (APPU) and ASEAN Secretariat.

The stamp contest is part of the ongoing collaborative efforts being made by Thailand Post and Asean Post to prepare for the higher competition once the AEC is launched. The focus for 2015 is on developing the working system for postal operations in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), increasing the competence of cross-border delivery and distribution through postal routes and establishing a logistics centre in a location that can link with border trade.