The commemorative postage stamps feature a common design reflecting the 'oneness' of the ASEAN Community to be formed on December 31 this year.
Each ASEAN country will issue the stamp with the country's name and currency denomination as well as the matching postmark design in their respective nations. Both stamp and postmark designs came from Vietnam, which were selected at the ASEAN Stamp Design Contest held in Bangkok in February this year.
Under the winning design, the postage stamp represents the ten flags of ASEAN members which are unified in the form of a flower. In the background, the symbol of a dove was included to show the pacific aspect of the region. On a lower level of the flags, there is an image depicting two shaking hands demonstrating the friendship as well as golden rice grains, referring to basic agriculture, the main means of income amongst ASEAN member countries.
The design of the postmark features the ASEAN emblem in the middle circled by three lines representing political stability, economic stability as well as social and cultural ties in the ASEAN Community.
Both designs reflect the unity of the ASEAN Community in accordance with the ASEAN motto 'One Vision, One Identity, One Community'.
The ASEAN Stamp Design Contest received as many as 30 stamp and 25 postmark designs from the ten member countries. The winning designs were selected by ten judges who are postal representatives from the ten countries and three judges from neutral organs including the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the Asian-Pacific Postal Union (APPU) and the ASEAN Secretariat.
