DFA, ERIA, FSI to Host High Level Forum on ASEAN@50
18 October 2017 MANILA - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Philippine Government, with the support of Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) and ASEAN Foundation (AF), will co-host The High Level Forum on ASEAN@50 on October 19 at Conrad Manila.
The High Level Forum is a one-day event, highlighted by a keynote address of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and a panel discussion of invited forum speakers in the afternoon. In the morning, there will be a panel session involving senior government officials, an expert, and a youth representative on a theme similar to the Philippine theme: ‘ASEAN: Partnering for Change, Engaging the World.’ There will also be a special speech by a senior official of the Government of Japan. Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano will deliver the welcome remarks.
The Forum is the first high level event involving a Head of State, former Heads of State, Ministers, former Ministers and former ASEAN Secretaries-General that ERIA has held since its founding in 2008. Congresswoman and former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Kingdom of Thailand, and Brunei Darussalam’s Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Lim Jock Seng are among the featured speakers and panelists.
The Forum is the culmination of a series of public symposia that ERIA has hosted in cooperation with various partners in several cities in the Philippines, the ASEAN Chairman this year, to commemorate ASEAN’s 50th Anniversary. The previous forums focused on the three pillars of ASEAN: the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.
The first event was the Public Symposium on Building ASEAN Political Security Community and National Resiliency held in Iloilo City on 18 June 2017, in cooperation with the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV).
For the second event, ERIA collaborated with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), the ASEAN Society (AS), with the support of the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) – Philippine Mission to ASEAN, to co-host the Public Symposium on ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community and Nation Building held in Davao City on 24 August 2017.
The Public Symposium on ASEAN Economic Community and East Asia Integration and Nation Building was the third event in the series. It was held in Manila on 21 September 2017, co-hosted by ERIA and PIDS, with the support of DFA – Philippine Mission to ASEAN.
During this latest Forum, DFA and ERIA will also launch the five-volume commemorative publication ASEAN@50: Retrospectives and Perspectives on the Making, Substance, and Future of ASEAN. The publication brings the retrospective and perspectives of key people who have been involved in the making and working of ASEAN, voices from the ASEAN peoples, and the analytical, insights, perspectives and reflections of eminent persons and experts on the evolution, substance and future of ASEAN. END