PROJECTS
SPF Program Agenda(2003)


Young Leaders Exchange Program: Dialogue for Enhanced Partnership in the 21st Century



15,000,000 yen［Self-Operated Project］
The Sasakawa Peace Foundation


The year 2003 is the final year of the Young Leaders Exchange Program. This year the exchange activities will focus on three areas: VIP, businesspersons, and young men and women. The project plans for each of the areas are as follows.

  1. Promoting exchange among VIP:
    1. Unofficial visit to Southeast Asian countries by Japanese VIP: In order to provide a forum for civil diplomacy, sometime in 2003, three (tentative) Japanese VIP will visit the target countries of the Pan Asia Fund to exchange opinions on a wide range of political, economic, and diplomatic issues.
    2. Organizing an unofficial meeting with Japanese and Southeast Asian VIP: We plan to select eight politicians at the Minister and Vice-Minister levels from Japan and the ASEAN nations, and hold unofficial talks sometime around May 2003 to discuss ways of strengthening economic/security cooperation between Japan and the ASEAN region. (Tentative site: Malaysia)
    3. Unofficial visit to Japan by Southeast Asian VIP: We plan to strengthen the human network by inviting eight Southeast Asian VIP, primarily from Vietnam, in July 2003, to exchange ideas with Japanese representatives from the political and financial worlds.

  2. Promoting exchange among businesspersons:
    With the help of the National University of Singapore, we aim to select around fifteen businesspersons in the hi-tech industries from Japan and the East Asian region, and provide a forum sometime around July 2003, for discussing such issues as investment in the region, transfer of technology, increasing international competitiveness, and private cooperation in the area of high technology.

  3. Youth Exchange:
    We aim to strengthen the network of next generation leaders in Asia by inviting eight young people from the nations of Indochina and holding an exchange workshop with representatives from Southeast Asia of the same generation (for one week in Indonesia sometime around April 2003). This year also, we will ask Dr. Mya Than to be the project adviser, and ask for his advice.


(Final year of a 5-year project)