05 December 2014 – More than 200 Korean and Southeast Asian students, including eight from the Philippines, took part in the daylong 2014 ASEAN-Korea Youth Forum at the Seoul City Hall on December 03, where the opening speakers called on young people to seize the initiative to develop relations in the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-Korea dialogue partnership.
The Forum, which took on the theme “ASEAN & Korea Young People: Building a Shared Future,” was opened by head of the organizing body, the ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC), Ambassador Hae-moon Chung and Seoul Vice Mayor for Administrative Affairs Jung Hyo-sung, while the keynote was given by Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Raul S. Hernandez.
In his opening speech at the Seoul City Hall’s Conference Hall, Ambassador Chung focused on the advantages of ASEAN in the partnership relations for having such a youthful population in contrast with Korea.
“In ASEAN, approximately 60 percent is young people under 35 years old. They are the region’s greatest assets to shape the future of the ASEAN region,” he told students and journalists. “In Korea, while the 2014 total population has increased 2.1 percent from 2010 to 50.4 million, the youth population has decreased 6.0 percent over the same period, to 9.8 million.”
Calling the current period a “unique time in history” where half of the world’s 7 billion inhabitants are under the age of 25, the largest number in history, Ambassador Chung expressed concerns about the future, where the youth face “challenges that extend across a wide spectrum of issues and concerns, many of which are not easy to tackle."
Speaking as chair of the ASEAN Committee in Seoul (ACS), Ambassador Hernandez expressed hopes for ASEAN, whose young population makes it well placed to reap significant demographic dividends for decades to come, especially if our governments – and our leaders – take effective policies to liberalize trade, attract investments, and mobilize capital and labor productively.”
“The youth – all of you gathered here today – are the leaders of tomorrow. And I believe in your potential – not just what you can achieve 10 or 15 years from now, but also what you can contribute today not only to your respective countries but also to our wider ASEAN-Korea community,” Ambassador Hernandez said.
Ambassador Hernandez said the Forum participants would be able to listen to the scheduled speakers, participate in discussions, ruminate and debate” with each other and “benefit from their feedback, before synthesizing and distilling all these perspectives” in a Forum Declaration that would be submitted to institutions working to foster ASEAN-Korea relations.
“At the end, it is my hope that each of you leave from here a different person than you had entered, with your heart nourished by a strong sense of solidarity, your spirit buoyed by productive camaraderie and your mind broadened by fresh insights, food for thought, and inspiring conversations,” he said in closing his keynote address.
Vice Mayor Jung called on the more than 200 participants mostly from various universities and a few from companies around Korea to play a bridging role in getting ASEAN and Korea together.
The Youth Forum featured three sessions: Promoting Understanding and Leadership Values among the Youth through Education; Empowering the Youth through Entrepreneurship and Employment; and Youth at the Forefront of Community Development through Volunteerism.
The first session was moderated by a Filipino professor married to a Korean national, Dr. Aileen Park of the Asian Center for Women’s Studies of Ehwa Womans University.
The eight Filipino students attending the Forum were Ron Laranjo and Cathe Sarmiento of Korea University, Angelica Dizon of Dongguk University, Loren Daryl Sarenas and Kevin Bruce Que of Daejeon University, Jescia Aquilizon and Princess Kaite Corporal of Hanguk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) and Rajee Florido of Far East University.
The AKC has organized similar youth-oriented events in the past, such as the recurring ASEAN-Korea Youth Network in 2012 and, in collaboration with the Federation of Korean Industries, the Job Fair for ASEAN Students on November 28, a professional recruiting event by Korean conglomerates exclusive for ASEAN students. END