PH youth delegates attend ASEAN-ROK Frontier Forum

BUSAN, South Korea — In hopes of further boosting the relations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) to achieve mutual prosperity and development in a strategic level, three Filipino youth delegates to the Sixth ASEAN-Korea Frontier Forum voiced out the different concerns and challenges confronting the Philippines in the areas of sustainable development, socio-cultural cooperation, and political and security concerns.

The Forum, which was hosted by the Asia Exchange Association and sponsored by the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund and Busan Metropolitan City, in cooperation with the Arirang TV Media, provided a stage where the next generation of young leaders from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and ROK discussed directions and joint actions of ASEAN member-nations and Korea. It was held February 17 to 24.

The participants were able to draft a resolution on ASEAN-Korea cooperation for mutual prosperity and development in each committee, namely economic cooperation, social and cultural cooperation, and political and security cooperation.

Filipino young professional and students Joie Cruz, John Kebyn Vil- larino and Amara Abrina were chosen to represent the country in the event. During the eight- day discussions, each of the delegates focused on their respective areas of interests, with Cruz tackling sustainable development; Villarino, social and cultural cooperation; and Abrina, political and security cooperation.

For Cruz, who works at the Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology, a stronger partnership between the ASEAN and ROK must be forged to further develop and empower the Philippines’ human resources, especially in the field of ICT and innovation.

“One of the things happening now in the country is the booming of the industry not only in the digital start-up industry as we have a lot of start-ups in the Philippines. There are also start-ups in other forms of businesses like social enterprises,” Cruz said.

“We want to encourage, as well as, ask for best practices from more developed nations, such as Korea for inputs, knowledge and experiences on how we could further support our MSMEs (micro, small, and mediumscale enterprises),” she added.

She noted that MSMEs should also be given more support by both ASEAN and ROK.

Villarino, a 4th year Internal Auditing student from the Far Eastern University in Manila, discussed about socio-cultural cooperation among the ASEAN member-nations and ROK.