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The
first annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit yesterday ended with spirited
debates and inspiring talks relating to the region's most pressing
issues, from a widening income gap to online media.
About 200 young leaders
some 40 countries in the Asia Pacific region were invited to the three-day
meeting hosted by the Asia Society at the Shilla
Hotel, downtown Seoul.
With the theme of
"Shaping an Asia Pacific Century :
Challenges and Choices," the delegates have shared their views and
opinions over leadership, development and growth concerns.
The Seoul summit has featured speeches by
Korean Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook and
former President and Nobel laureate Kim Dae-jung.
Delegates from 28 countries have participated in group discussions and
brainstormed ideas to address the most pressing issues facing the region.
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Participants in the Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit
pose for a group photo before the end of the three-day conference
organized by the Asia Society at the Shilla
Hotel in Seoul.
[The Korea
Herald]
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"The age of Asia is upon us. You are the main actors in this
age of Asia," Kim Dae-jung told summit participants in his speech
Saturday. The conference was composed of breakout sessions, panel
discussions, reunion sessions and group presentations. Each session was
full of free talk and panel speeches, which helped those attending better
understand and address the agenda.
"We have different
systems, different styles, and different states of health," said Piya Hanvoravongchai,
research fellow at the International Health Policy Program of Thailand's
Ministry of Public Health.
"But from sharing and
communicating with each other, we can probably get new ideas and address
these challenges."
Participants began debating
the broader implications of Asia's
explosive but uneven growth on the second day of the event.
Four representative
speakers briefly gave their perspective on issues relating to the income
gap, and their concerns about sustainable growth in Asia.
Kim Hun-soo,
managing director and head of Pacific Rim Equity Research of Merrill
Lynch, stressed that bigger investment in infrastructure plays a crucial
role in addressing the pressing regional anxieties.
"Emerging Asia adds 33 million people to their cities every
year. The challenges are obviously not the growth, but the infrastructure
of the society supporting them," he said.
"What I mean by
infrastructure is not just toll roads, dams, electricity power generation
and airports, but also the education, medical, and legal infrastructure,
the political structure and so forth."
The breakout group talks
were held following the group session, aiming to identify major
challenges in each area, share best practices for handling the urgency of
the issue and develop fresh ideas.
Each group explored how to
build healthy, inclusive, safe and vibrant societies.
The four group sessions
came together again after lunch to share their results from the previous
talks.
The Chi Heng
Foundation, a China-based charity helping children orphaned by AIDS, was
chosen as this year's recipient of the Asia 21 Public Service Award.
Chung To, founder and
chairperson of the organization, received the award for his and the
foundation's outstanding contributions in supporting Chinese AIDS
orphans.
On the last day of the
summit, the teams designed their own ideal societies with paper, scissors
and pens as part an efforts to draw a more
concrete picture of their various ideas.
The participants included Internews regional director Kathleen Reen from Australia, Herald Media Inc. CEO and
Chairman Hong Jung-wook from Korea, Parliament member Hsiao Bi-khim from Taiwan,
Los Angeles City Council president Eric Garcetti,
and lawyer Zahid Jamil
from Pakistan.
The Asia Society is the
leading global non-profit organization working to strengthen
communications and understanding among leaders of Asia and the United States
through cross-national dialogue and other social activities.
(kkt@heraldm.com)
By Ko
Kyoung-tae
2006.11.20
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