The official logo of ASEAN Year 2020 incorporates the image of a lotus, the national flower of Vietnam. — Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism unveiled the logo, created by Pham Ngoc Thuong from the southern province of Long An, on Friday in Hanoi.

The lotus has three petals representing the three pillars of the ASEAN bloc, namely the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC).

A flying chim lạc (a legendary bird of Vietnam) symbolises the development, integration and prosperity of the bloc. The logo will be accompanied with the slogan ‘Cohesive and Responsive’.

The colours of the logo symbolise harmony, with yellow symbolising prosperity, optimism and joy; red meaning activeness and determination; while blue means peace, intelligence and belief, according to deputy minister Lê Quang Tung.

“The logo was selected from entries to design contest launched in April 2019,” said Tung.

“The contest received 167 entries sent by 61 artists nationwide.” VNS