Opinions: enhancing ASEM visibility

The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam (MFA), and with the co-sponsorship of the Government of Hungary, organized a workshop to investigate the role of culture in enhancing the perception of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process. The workshop was organized under the framework of ASEF program on cultural dialogue and took place in Quang Ninh, Vietnam on the 28th to the 29th of April 2010.

Among the topics discussed at the workshop were different perspectives and ideas from ASEM governments and civil society on how cultural activities can play a role in enhancing ASEM’s visibility. Recommendations will be presented to the ASEM Cultural Ministers Meeting in Poznan (7-9 September 2010) and to the ASEM 8 Summit.

Journalist and researcher, Daniel Madrid Morales interviewed four participants at the meeting. Responding to the question on how to improve the visibility of the ASEM process, Ugo Bacchella, President and Head of Training at the Fondazione Fitzcarraldo, Italy stated, “the recommendation to ASEM is to involve in all your initiatives, local and regional partners with a very open attitude and these should include all other public organizations, not for profit and non-governmental organizations both in the arts and culture and in other domains…..”. While Pooja Sood, Director of Khoj International Artists Association, India speaking on why culture would be important to increase visibility of the ASEM process suggested, “art has a huge potential to bring about change and that is what has to be exploited…..” To hear the compete interviews of all four participants, please click on the video above.