6 February 2012- Philippine Ambassador to Germany Maria Cleofe R. Natividad led her fellow Ambassadors of the Berlin ASEAN Committee (BAC) in a series of separate fora in two of Germany's top universities - Humboldt University and the University of Freiburg.
The forum at Humboldt University, jointly organized with the Berlin ASEAN Committee, was held on January 27 at the university's facility Fritz Reuter-Saal with Ambassador Natividad herself delivering the main lecture entitled "An ASEAN Community in 2015."Prof. Dr. Boike Rehbein, Chairman of Humboldt University's Department of Asian and African Sociology, also spoke on the "important link between the university's research and studies programs with the official representatives of the ASEAN countries." He noted the University's thrust and strength on Southeast Asian studies, which is manifested partly by the teaching of eight Southeast Asian languages, including Tagalog.
Ambassador Natividad cited ASEAN's 45 year-long deep history and the current goal of achieving an "ASEAN Community by 2015". She added that "ASEAN's higher sense of regionalism has become a stronger force in building a regional community, and has played the central driving force in building the new security and economic architecture of the region."
Apart from the ASEAN Charter, which provides the legal and institutional framework on how member countries relate to each other, she highlighted the "three pillars of the ASEAN Community comprising of the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community."
Other ASEAN ambassadors later joined the panel and Prof. Dr. Vincent Houben, Chairman of the university's Department of Southeast Asian History, as they emphasized "the importance of ASEAN cooperating with the international community to address the global challenges such as the financial crisis, climate change and security issues." They also highlighted ASEAN's "commitment to develop strategic partnerships and prosperity in the region and the global community.
Around 80 participants welcomed the discussions, including a graduate student who called for more similar informative lectures. Meanwhile, each of the 10 ASEAN embassies displayed their country information materials, handouts and posters on tourism, trade and investment at their respective booths at the foyer area.
On the same day, Ambassador Natividad participated in a Roundtable on East and Southeast Asia. The roundtable discussion was organized by the Department of International Politics of the University of Freiburg. It was held at the Seminaris Campus Hotel Berlin, where ASEAN's perspective on the Global Financial Crisis was discussed together with Dr. Rolf Langhammer, Vice-President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Ambassador Natividad shared her views on how the Philippines is coping in the wake of the 2009 economic meltdown as well as the current European sovereign debt crisis. She also shared her views on the dynamics of ASEAN economic integration, particularly the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) decision-making and the setting up of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), which supervises financial development in the region.
Ambassador Natividad encouraged officials from both universities to continue exploring areas of cooperation with the ASEAN University Network (AUN) in order to increase the number of ASEAN students, faculty members and researchers coming to Germany. END
