ASEF Cultural Policy Dialogue Series

Overview

In the field of cultural policy, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) aims to stimulate analysis and engagement that reflect current political debates in Asia and Europe, as well as demonstrate verifiable alignment with priorities of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

ASEF attends the biennial ASEM Culture Ministers’ Meetings (ASEM CMMs) and closely follows the discussions at these Ministerial meetings. Further, ASEF facilitates dialogue between civil experts and government officials on topics of mutual interest inspired by ASEM's cultural agenda. These dialogues take the form of Experts' Meetings and Public Fora and particularly emphasise the sharing of good practices from Asia and Europe. Recent Experts' Meetings and Public Fora on sustainable heritage management have taken place in Amsterdam, Netherlands (2010), Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2012) and Yangon, Myanmar (2013).  The outcomes of ASEF Experts' Meetings - which take the form of policy recommendations and compilation of good practices - are subsequently channeled to ASEM governments through the ASEM CMMs. ASEF's role in supporting knowledge exhange between Asia and Europe has been consistently acknowledged in all Chairman's Statements of ASEM CMMs (Indonesia, 2012; Poland, 2010; Malaysia, 2008; France, 2005; China, 2003)

ASEF supports research on arts and culture in ASEM countries through the WorldCP-International Database on Cultural Policies initiative, which aims to make such information comprehensive, up-to-date and publicly accessible. This research is also made available through ASEF's online arts portal, culture360.org.

Goals 

• To facilitate dialogue, knowledge exchange and networking between government officials and civil experts on topics inspired by ASEM's cultural agenda
• To promote research on arts and culture in Asia and Europe

Upcoming activities

• Launch of cultural profiles of Mongolia and Singapore, early 2014
• 7th ASEF Experts' Meeting & Public Forum: Creative Economy in Asia and Europe

Past programmes

Inspired by the growing acknowledgement of the significant role of culture in development, ASEF implemented the Connect2Culture programme (2008-2011), exploring intersections between art, climate change and sustainable development.