Good morning and let me extend a warm welcome to all of you to this Building a Better Asia Young Asian Leaders Dialogue and Retreat official opening ceremony.

This Building A Better Asia Young Leaders retreat was initially conceptualized two years ago as a process that can bring together young people from all over Asia to interact with one another. It was natural that The Nippon Foundation, a leading philanthropic organization in Japan, took the initiative. The Nippon Foundation sees itself as a “Hub” and a “Bridge” to Create a “Better World”. In its own words “The Nippon Foundation envisions a world in which we have transcended politics and ideology, religion and race, a world where we no longer suffer from hunger and disease”.

In their wisdom the Nippon Foundation group proposed that the initial group of participants to this programme should come from its diverse pool of talented beneficiaries from the various projects that had been implemented by the group which includes the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and the Tokyo Foundation over the last 3 decades.

It was also natural that if Asia is to construct a better future for future generations that the first partner and main venue of this retreat is Peking University, one of the leading universities in this world. Peking University and China’s young will have an important role to shape this better future for Asia.

Dr Min Weifang should be recognized for his foresight last year in locating this in Peking University and in doing so he also gave life to this dialogue among Asians.

The first retreat was held here exactly one year ago. Last year we had 16 participants from 10 countries. This year we have 23 participants from 14 countries. Last year we started with one retreat. This fiscal year we shall have two retreats. This second one will be held in India. I am sure these numbers will expand.

The title of this dialogue, BUILDING A BETTER ASIA, expresses fairly correctly and clearly the intent of this programme which is to contribute to the promotion of a region that is global and inclusive in terms of cultural, economic, political, social and intellectual leaderships. Invariably, as citizens of this large continent we envision an Asia that is at peace, that is free from small and big wars, exploitation and diseases, an Asia that is economically vibrant, tolerant of diversity, and where people are economically, politically and legally empowered, and an Asia that can play a role with her friends in shaping the world of the future.

This means that it should be an ASIA that is more open, just, egalitarian, and more livable, that promotes the values of Human Freedoms, Press Freedom, Regional Integration, Greater Political Participation, Education of Minorities, Intellectual Cooperation, and Human Development in general.

This ASIA that we envisage must therefore be ONE THAT IS BETTER THAN HER PAST AND AN ASIA THAT IS GREATER THAN HERSELF. Asia’s diversity is expressed in many different ways but it is imperative now and in the future that we believe that Asia’s strength lies in its tolerance and acceptability of differences. The dangers arising from intolerance and poverty are obvious but what is important is that Asians should come together to contribute to finding solutions to the problems of Asia and the world.

The objective of these retreats, therefore, is twofold: firstly, it is to give opportunity to the participants in these exchanges to introduce new thinking on finding creative solutions and to promote mutually beneficial cooperation and, secondly, to establish networks of people throughout Asia and the world.

The theme for this year’s dialogue is “Building the Common Good in Asia” and will focus on issues such as the ecology, social disparities, good governance amongst others. These networks of future leaders will grow and I hope will become advocates of peace and progress in the world. For instance, yesterday the APEC leaders in their Sydney Declaration did

express their willingness to strengthen cooperation to save the earth. But retreats like this here in Beijing, I hope, should go beyond the symbolic expressions of concern for the environment.

To complement these dialogues the participants of the first dialogue established a website called www. buildingabetterasia.com.

Before I end allow me to take this opportunity to express my appreciation on behalf of the Academic Committee of this programme and the Nippon Group of Foundations to thank Dr Surin Pitsuwan for his keynote address and his special interaction with the participants; Dr Min Weifang for his keynote address this morning; to Peking University for its support of this dialogue series; to our 6 resource persons – Prof Amitav Acharya of the University of Bristol, Ms Yuli Ismartono from Indonesia; Dr Rajiv Kumar from India: Prof Sachihiko Harashina from Japan; Prof Pang Eng Fong from Singapore; and Prof Wang Jisi of Peking University – for their collaboration in this retreat.

The “2nd Building a Better Asia: Future Leaders’ Dialogue”   begun with an inspiring keynote speech by Dr. Surin Pitsuwan who  asserted the essential unity of Asia despite its enormous diversity. Dr. Pitsuwan, who is Secretary General Designate of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), cited the opinion of Japanese visionary Kakuzo Okakura on the unity of Asia.

However, even before Okakura penned down his “Asia is one” the Javanese had an ancient expression “Bhennika Tungggal Ika” which means unity in diversity.  As such, Dr. Pitsuwan  added, Asians are equipped with the ability of harmonizing what is seen by others as mutually exclusive and contradictory.

 He stressed, however,   that the unity of Asia was not meant as a hegemony of any particular state over others. “The age of imperialism is over,” said Dr. Pitsuwan who was Foreign Minister of Thailand between  1997-2001. While his generation had sown the seeds of cooperation among Asian nations he expressed the hope that future leaders of Asia will nurture the tree of that unity to its fullest potential.

Twenty three young leaders of Asia from 16 countries participated in the six-day retreat which was sponsored by the Nippon Foundation of Japan and organized by Peking University and the Information & Resource Center of Singapore. The participants were drawn from the pool of alumni of the various programmes of The Nippon Foundation, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation and The Tokyo Foundation. 

Dr. Pitsuwan’s speech was followed by an engaging  question and answer session where participants queried him on the enormous challenges confronting Asia due to its diverse political systems and different levels of development. He was also questioned on the doctrine of non-interference of ASEAN.

Earlier, Prof. Min Weifang, Chairman of the University Council of Peking University welcomed the participants to Peking University and said that with the increasing importance of Asia the responsibility of building a better Asia lay with the young leaders. The Director of the Information & Resource Center, M Rajaretnam, called for an ASIA that is more open, just, egalitarian, and more environmentally livable. The objective of the dialogues, he stressed, is  to give opportunity to the participants to introduce new thinking to promote mutually beneficial cooperation and to establish networks of people throughout Asia and the world.

Aside from their encounter with the Dr Surin Pitsuwan the participants had a busy schedule of discussions with several well-known experts from different parts of the world: Prof Amitav Acharya from the University of Bristol; Yuli Ismartono of Indonesia; Dr Rajiv Kumar from India; Prof. Sachihiko Harashina of Japan; Prof. Pang Eng Fong from Singapore; and Prof Wang Jisi of China. The participants had a long and interesting session with Mr Takeju Ogata, President of the Nippon Foundation.

The retreat ended on Saturday 15 September 2007 after the participants deliberated upon and issued a communiqué . 

Whereas, we Asians acknowledge the imperative need of working together, despite the prevalence of diversity in our midst, to improve our knowledge and understanding of each other;

Whereas, we face a number of common challenges, including: abject poverty, health issues, social, economic, gender, political and ethnic injustices, conflicts, environmental degradation and massive disregard to the rule of law within countries and across Asia;

Whereas, we also share common and collective strength, such as the richness of culture, values, philosophies, and biodiversity;

Whereas, we envision a better Asia that is prosperous, peaceful, harmonious, progressive, secure, just, and free;

Whereas, we recognize and respect the diversity and collective work of all participants of past and present Future Leaders’ Dialogue, we shall work in solidarity with each other in achieving our shared vision of a better Asia;

Whereas, we want to strengthen our effort and consolidate our activities, expertise, and aspirations as agents of change to build a better Asia;

Hence, we strongly resolve to: 

1. work and collaborate within our network:

a. by contributing to the BABA website with a view of facilitating communication to all members of the Future Leaders’ Dialogue and update information to the same on our activities; 

 b. by organizing meetings in furtherance of the BABA goals and objectives; and 

c. by engaging ourselves in joint projects, researches and other forms of social actions;

   

2. share and make available our local information resources and networks, i.e., by promoting information and documentation about Asia in multiple languages; and

3. expand our network to make its programs more viable, effective and relevant in Asia:

a. by supporting members’ activities; and

b. by sharing and disseminating information to other beneficiaries of the Nippon Foundation Groups’ programs, in particular, and the society, in general.

c. by encouraging collaborative projects which transcend BABA community to the interest of people in global as well as regional community.