Connecting Civil Societies III: An Asia-Europe Dialogue on Economy and Society

Held in the lead-up to the ASEM 7 Summit, the Conference “Connecting Civil Societies III: An Asia-Europe Dialogue on Economy and Society” (Beijing, 17 and 18 October 2008) has explored how ASEM has promoted civil society cooperation and interaction of the main sectors of the Asia-Europe community. The key objectives of this conference were (i) to review the state of Asia-Europe relations with a focus on civil society partnerships and business links and (ii) to submit a set of recommendations to the ASEM governments on areas of cooperation in the ASEM framework, particularly on important prevalent issues related to economy and society, including: Food and Environmental Security, the Oil and Energy Crises and Financial Market Turbulence. The conference was co-organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation, UNU-CRIS, the Irish Institute of Chinese Studies and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This report was prepared with the conference Main Rapporteur, Dr. Jan Pronk, former UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Sudan and former Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the following workshop rapporteurs: Dr. Raymond Atje, Head, Economics Department, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Indonesia), Mr. Ou Virak, Director, Cambodian Center for Human Rights and Alliance for Freedom of Expression; Mr. Richard Werly, Journalist, Le Temps.