Pace of ASEM Preparations Accelerates

A little more than six months before the Asian-Europe Summit (ASEM) in Hanoi in October, officials and civil society appeared to accelerate the pace of preparations with a series of meetings highlighting some of the issues to be faced at the Summit, with some emphasis on those of public interest.

Strategy meetings and visits were also taking place in an attempt to smooth the way for discussion of difficult issues before the Dublin gathering. Particular attention was being focused in European official circles on developing policy options that would avert a possibly debilitating conflict over the related issue of ASEM membership for new EU countries and for Myanmar and Laos.

But with the theme of “Revitalising and Substantiating Asia-Europe Relations” for the Hanoi Summit chosen by Foreign Ministers in Bali in July 2003, officials were also striving to develop a suitable agenda for both leaders and for public visibility.

Most of these issues were to be subjects to be discussed at a meeting of the EU COASIE group of national government Asia policy directors in Brussels March 16.

Vietnamese hosts also especially let it be known that they were planning meetings of trade union officials and the customary ASEM Peoples’ Forum, albeit in scaled-down versions or not coinciding with the official ASEM Summit in October. While some governments, non-governmental organisations had long pressed Vietnam on this issue to clear up the uncertainty over their initial reluctance, it was unsure whether the limited Peoples’ Forum during the summer proposed by the hosts would satisfy those clamouring for a major event that would also air doubts and criticism of the ASEM system.

In Europe, the German Government and political party foundations were increasing efforts to develop certain issues of special concern before the key official meetings. In meetings in March and the coming months, German officials and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) were seeking to raise awareness and obtain support for issues such an ASEM meeting of Labour and Employment Ministers to discuss employment and social issues.

Addressing a small workshop March 16 in Brussels organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Wolfgang Heller, director of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour international policy division, explained the concept of this German proposal presented and adopted at the Copenhagen meeting in 2002 in the belief that social issues had been inadequately dealt with in ASEM. The proposal was co-sponsored by China and Ireland. He noted that it was important “to understand the fundamental, irreversible change in the working world as a result of structural changes in countries, the globalisation of the world economy, new technologies, and demographic developments.” He also added that “Policies should therefore actively foster opportunities resulting from the development of innovative national and international strategies to reorganise working society and rapidly implement the necessary reform of the labor market.” He also observed that “Work in the future will differ from the traditional forms and contents of the industrialized society of the 20th century.” And he suggested that key issues included the quality of work, including health and safety at work, skills for a knowledge-based society and new systems of labour relations that benefit business, labour and job-seekers.

This followed an informal brainstorming session in Beijing in November 2003 that also focused in the relationship between growth and employment, dialogue-oriented labour relations, corporate social responsibility and recognition of qualifications among other subjects.

An informal seminar was also being planned in Hanoi in April on “the future of employment and the quality of labour,” and the German Ministry was also planning an official conference in June in Berlin on the same subject.

On other subjects, conferences were being planned by FES in Berlin in late March on an Asia-Europe dialogue of culture, in April in Phnom Penh on Democracy in Southeast Asia and Singapore on an ASEAN Social Charter and in May in Kuching, Malaysia, on “Enhanced Trade Union Capacity Building through Young Dynamic Leadership,” and by the Singapore-based Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) on Cheju Island in South Korea in April on “Reinforcing Asia-Europe Cooperation on Climate Change,” in April in Boao City in Hainan, China, on “New Security Challenges for Asia and Europe” and in Barcelona in June on “Connecting Civil Society.”

In Vietnam, Vu Xuan Hong, president of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations and a Member of the National Assembly, indicated a number of events were also being scheduled. These included on the official side, the Third Meeting of Asia-Europe Parliamentarians in Hue in April, and involving civil society an April meeting of an Asia-Europe Trade Union Forum and proposed for August the Asia-Europe Peoples Forum, which has become a traditional event in conjunction with the ASEM summits in the past. He said this later event would revolve around themes of human and economic security and include a youth forum.