DUBAI: UAE residents and visitors will this weekend have a feel of Southeast Asia as five member-countries of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) host the first regional cultural-trade fair at the Rise on Dubai Creek Harbour, overlooking the mangrove and flamingo reserve of Ras Al Khor.

The two-day event, open to the public from 3pm on Friday, is organised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Business Councils Alliance (ABCA).

ABCA is the aggrupation of the Indonesian Business Council, Malaysia Business Council, Philippine Business Council, Singapore Business Council, and the Thailand Business Council not only in Dubai and the Northern Emirates but across the UAE.

The UAE is host to an estimated one million Aseans including those from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Philippine Business Council-Dubai and the Northern Emirates chairperson Bobbie Carella and Malaysia Business Council president Fei Chin Kaw described their regional roots as diverse yet similar.

Both want the diversities and similarities to be experienced by the locals and the other expatriate residents, including the visitors.

Carella expressed hope that the first-time event would be an “inclusive experience in the spirit of friendship and understanding.”

Kaw said the fair, in collaboration with the Emaar Dubai Creek Harbour project, “hopes to attract a lot of footfall to the venue, to introduce the Asean elements to the UAE, (in the midst of the) festive, celebratory atmosphere of the weekend.”

The venue will be a marketplace for the various goods and products from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

On Friday, the public will enjoy the Asean culture through traditional/contemporary Asean songs and dances, and the “Food Addict Challenge.”

On Saturday are more music and dances, the “F&B Market and Workshop, the Interactive Kids Dance Video, and the Heguro Memory Show.”

ABCA was organised in 2016 after the consuls-general of the five countries in Dubai and the Northern Emirates formed the UAE version of the Asean on Aug.22, 2016.