Corporate
Executive Director's Message
In the past year, ASEF once again demonstrated its relevance to the ASEM process through its value-added contributions to major ASEM Meetings, particularly the 12th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM FMM12) held in November 2015 in Luxembourg.
2015 was a fruitful year for the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). It has successfully implemented 31 projects consisting of nearly 100 various activities in 6 thematic areas: culture, economy, education, governance, public health and sustainable development. With these projects and activities, ASEF’s footprints reached 14 Asian and 16 European ASEM1 countries, involving participants from all ASEM partners. Thus ASEF has effectively complemented the government-led ASEM process by promoting the people-to-people connectivity between Asia and Europe, bringing together civil societies from both regions for dialogue and cooperation, and providing platform for government representatives to interact with the civil societies. Furthermore, through different online channels, particularly social media, ASEF has reached out to millions of audience from all over Asia and Europe, which has noticeably enhanced the awareness and visibility of both ASEF and ASEM.
In the past year, ASEF once again demonstrated its relevance to the ASEM process through its value-added contributions to major ASEM Meetings, particularly the 12th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM FMM12) held in November 2015 in Luxembourg. Three ASEF events were organised on the sidelines of the ASEM FMM12, namely: the 1st ASEF Young Leaders’ Summit on “Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment”, the 10th ASEF Journalists’ Colloquium on “Crisis Reporting: the Role of Asian and European Media”, and the ASEF Photo Exhibition “On the Go”. With strong support from the European Union and the Luxembourg Government, these events turned out to be very successful and meaningful, and received high recognition by the ASEM FMM12. In addition, ASEF delivered the Policy Recommendations produced by the 4th ASEM Rectors’ Conference and Students’ Forum held in China directly to the 5th ASEM Education Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM ME5) in April 2015 in Latvia. The outcomes of the 8th ASEF Public Forum on “Creative Cities in Asia and Europe” in Gwangju, Korea, will also be presented to the 7th ASEM Culture Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM CMM7) to be convened in June 2016 in Korea
ASEF has reinforced its flagship projects in 2015. The ASEF Creative Networks and Creative Encounters series supported 7 cultural projects involving 10 ASEM countries within the year. The 15th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights gathered over 120 participants from the government, civil society, and private sector in Asia and Europe to deliberate and develop recommendations on the issues related to human rights and human trafficking. The Asia-Europe Public Diplomacy Training Initiative provided capacity-building and practical-skills-oriented trainings to early-career diplomats from both regions and received very positive feedbacks from the beneficiaries. In the framework of ASEF’s Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum), a series of events focused on Sustainable Development Goals were held to address this global common challenge in the Asia-Europe context. On Climate Change, ASEF organised an event series which culminated with the Conference “Asia and Europe Crossing Paths on the Way to COP21” in Paris. Besides, ASEF has further improved the public accessibility and enriched the content of the ASEM InfoBoard and ASEF’s own websites, including the Governors’ Intranet and culture360, the online arts portal in the field of culture.
In 2015, ASEF accomplished two other important tasks. First, to strengthen the complementarities between ASEF and the ASEM process, the ASEF Board of Governors and ASEF management jointly prepared the paper titled “Suggestions for Closer Synergies between ASEF Activities and the ASEM Process”. The ASEM FMM12 in Luxembourg took note of the paper and tasked the ASEM Senior Officials in cooperation with ASEF to put the recommendations in the paper into practice. Thus ASEF has fulfilled the task given by the 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM FMM11) held in India in 2013. Second, ASEF conducted a review of its existing funding mechanism, and the outcome document was endorsed at the 33rd ASEF Board of Governors’ Meeting in December 2015. The proposals contained in the document may help ASEF to achieve financial sustainability and diversify its funding sources in the long run.
2016 will be especially important for both ASEM and ASEF. The ASEM partners will mark the 20th Anniversary of the ASEM process and the ASEM leaders will gather at the 11th ASEM Summit (ASEM11) in July in Mongolia to discuss and plan the future direction of ASEM. For ASEF, while contributing meaningfully to the celebration of the milestone in ASEM’s evolution and supporting the ASEM11 with a set of events and publications, it needs to prepare for its own 20th Anniversary commemoration in 2017. At the same time, ASEF will witness the change of the core members of its management team. My colleagues and I will strive to keep up the high standard of ASEF’s performance so as to lay a solid ground for its future development. In the meantime, ASEF will continuously reflect in its projects the latest trends in Asia-Europe relations, such as the increasing attention from both regions to connectivity and sustainable development.
To achieve our set goals for 2016, sustained political and financial commitment from the ASEM partners will be indispensable. We also look forward to continued active engagement of our stakeholders from across Asia and Europe.
1 The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal process of dialogue and cooperation bringing together 21 Asian countries and 30 European countries, as well as the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Union.