Over 300 ambassadors aboard the 43^rd Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program (SSEAYP 2016) spent their second day in Ho Chi Minh City discussing social issues with local youths.

Three-hundred and twenty-nine SSEAYP ambassadors, who are young leaders of ten Southeast Asian countries and Japan, on Friday morning disembarked from Japanese cruise ship Nippon Maru onto Cat Lai Port in the city, kick-starting their four-day stay in Vietnam’s economic hub.

After spending the rest of their first day joining an exchange program with local youths, the young ambassadors split up into eight groups to visit different locations in the city on their second day, where they joined open discussions on several topics concerning Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries.

At the headquarters of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper in Phu Nhuan District on Saturday, 43 SSEAYP ambassadors divided themselves into small groups and got involved in discussions on ‘The Important Role of the Media in Promoting and Sharing an Understanding of Different Cultures in the ASEAN Community.’

ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a ten-member politico-economic organization whose members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The media is an effective means of providing updated news related to a country for local and international readers, the ambassadors said in the discussions.

It is important to have newspapers, both print and online, in English and the native languages of ASEAN member countries to promote and share their different cultures, they added.

The rise of such social media as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram was also noted as a new and vibrant source of news, though many ambassadors advised readers of such news outlets to employ a critical mindset to question their credibility.

In a post-discussion interview with Tuoi Tre, Japanese ambassador Riku Ohkubo said he learned a lot from the discussions and ideas shared by other people with first-hand experience in the media industry.

Meanwhile, another group of SSEAYP ambassadors joined undergraduates and professors at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities in District 1 on Saturday for the discussion on ‘The Promotion of Cross-Cultural Exchange.’

Indonesian ambassador Arif Wardiman Lase said he did not suffer from a culture shock despite this being his first time in Vietnam, as the ways of life here compared to his home country are similar for the most part.

Lase added that Vietnamese youths are “friendly and nice,” and that it is important for him to learn the cultures of other ASEAN countries as Indonesia itself is a country of diverse cultures.

At Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in District 5, the topic of ‘Education in School’ was lively talked over by many ambassadors, including Randy S. Magdaluyo from the Philippines, who had spent some time teaching in the U.S. prior to joining the program.

The Filipino asserted that there are many similarities between the education systems of Vietnam and the Philippines, as both place emphasis on the orientation and development of skills for students through extracurricular activities.

Later the same day, the delegates gathered at the campus of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in District 10 to attend a welcome ceremony of the homestay program.

Each of the 329 ambassadors was connected to a host family with whom they would spend the rest of their stay in Ho Chi Minh City to experience the traditional lifestyle of a Vietnamese family.

The delegates departed for their next destination on Monday, and are scheduled to visit Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, and Indonesia before returning to Japan.

First organized in 1974, SSEAYP is a cooperation program run by the governments of the ten ASEAN nations and Japan with a view to fostering the friendship among their youths.

This year the SSEAYP program lasts from October 25 to December 15.

Vietnam has taken part in the program since 1995.