The year 2012 was an eventful milestone in the history of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). ASEF celebrated its 15th Anniversary (ASEF15) on 17 May 2012 at the National Library in Singapore. The former Prime Minister and current Emeritus Senior Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong, honoured the occasion as the Keynote Speaker. “ASEF was conceived as a vehicle to strengthen people-to-people ties between Asia and Europe,” reminisced ESM Goh while addressing the attendees.

Commemorating 15 years of connecting peoples from the two regions, this year ASEF had the opportunity to showcase its multi-faceted work through an exhibition at the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit (ASEM9) in Vientiane, Lao PDR. This exhibition, entitled ‘Connected Histories. Shared Future’, celebrated the priorities of ASEM process through a retrospective glance at the work of ASEF and the EU Centre in Singapore over the last decade and a half.

In 2012, ASEF demonstrated its relevance as the only permanently established institution within the ASEM process by directly contributing to key ASEM Ministerial Meetings. An ASEF delegation participated in the 5th ASEM Culture Ministers’ Meeting in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Through this meeting, ASEF channelled recommendations from civil society experts on good governance of heritage cities to the ministers. ASEF also organised the 6th Asia-Europe Editors’ Roundtable in Bangkok, Thailand, in conjunction with the ASEM Finance Ministers’ Meeting. ASEF’s Deputy Executive Director presented the key highlights from the discussions of the Roundtable to the ASEM Senior Finance Officials.

This year, ASEF also made notable progress working in various thematic areas. Especially in the field of education where ASEF gathered about 100 universities, governments and industry leaders, students, and representatives of international organisations at the 3rd ASEM Rectors’ Conference in Groningen, The Netherlands. The main theme of the event was ‘Universities, Businesses and You: For a Sustainable Future’. It was immediately preceded by the 1st Asia-Europe Students’ Forum. Also in the realm of sustainable development, this year ASEF had the remarkable opportunity to participate in the Rio+20 Earth Summit and feed Asian-European perspectives into a multilateral forum. With ASEF taking the lead, the Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum) and its partners organised two expert panels as side events complementing the talks at the Rio Summit.

Overall, the year 2012 was not only an occasion to commemorate our past achievements, but also to plan the future. Looking ahead, ASEF has a full calendar for 2013 with more than 50 activities across Asia and Europe. Through these activities, ASEF will remain closely aligned to the ASEM priorities. Some upcoming projects are the 13th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights ‘Human Rights and the Environment’ (in Denmark), ASEF’s participation in the 4th Asia-Europe Meeting of Ministers for Education (in Malaysia), the public launch of the research study ‘The Health Dimension of Southeast Asian Migration to Europe’ (in Italy), the Asia- Europe Experts’ Meeting on Heritage, Sustainable Tourism and Urban Living (in Myanmar), Asia Europe Economic Forum meetings (in China/Belgium), and the 9th ASEF Journalists’ Colloquium (in India).

ASEF will continue to work hard to fulfil the mandate given by ASEM to strengthen ties between Asia and Europe. Having taken over the reins of ASEF and working with its stakeholders and staff, I feel more confident about the growing relevance of ASEF in the years ahead, when the world needs more interregional and multi-dimensional collaborations.

I would like to conclude this message by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to all our stakeholders, ASEM governments, ASEF Governors, partners and participants. They gave us the opportunity to make a meaningful difference and we owe all our achievements of the last 15 years to each one of them. I look forward to your continued encouragement and support in the coming years so that ASEF can reach new heights.

Ambassador ZHANG Yan
ASEF Executive Director