Asean Affairs department director-general Jakkrit Srivali said the contest had been a success, with many people submitting videos for the chance to win more than Bt300,000 in prizes.

“More than 12 videos were selected by the judges and published … [creating widespread] awareness of the public benefits and opportunities from joining the AEC,” he said.

First place for the secondary-schools section of the contest went to “Woven World” by Warissara Inthakuean, a Matthayom 4 student from the Sa School in Nan province.

She said her story was about a girl who was born to a family of weavers who used lai nam lai fabric, to promote the fabric and its beauty among Asean countries.

She said the video also highlighted a Nan handicraft being passed down from generation to generation and aimed to “build an awareness of the uniqueness, delicateness and elegance of Thai craftsmanship among the AEC member countries and worldwide”.

“The video also promoted Thai local wisdom conservation that was passed on to the younger generations so its uniqueness will never be lost,” she said.

 The video “Asean Together” by Kittipat Champathong, a Matthayom 5 student from the Marywittaya School in Prachin Buri province, was the first runner-up.

He said his video was inspired by AEC music and he wanted to share his story through a song so its message was better conveyed to people.

He added that his video promoted Asean economic development through being united.

“My video is under the concept ‘AEC of My dreams’, so its story is about the thing I expect from the AEC – that all member countries together move forward to prosperity,” he said.

“There is an economics war, which is not much different from [an actual] war because we have to get more advantage over others to win … We cannot compete with each other but must walk towards success together in the AEC.”

The second runner-up was called “See You Again” and was made by Chanittha On-aroon, a Matthayom 5 student from the Wat Songtham School in Samut Prakan province.

She said the story was about Lilly, an exchange student from Singapore studying in Thailand, and Ton, who had a crush on her but could not talk to her because of the language difficulty.

“Ton thinks it is impossible to have a relationship with Lilly because they have different mother tongues.

“When Ton studied social studies, he was inspired to study English harder, and finally he could talk to Lilly,” she said.

“The video pointed out the problem and difficulty of learning other languages in Thailand. Since we are already part of the AEC, we have to try harder to master the central language

“English to use among member countries for business progress, education, and so on as well as love across language borders.”