ROME, 8 April 2021 – Over 100 high school students from ASEAN and Italy gathered virtually at the 1^st Youth Conference on ASEAN-Italy: A Partnership for Development on 7-8 April 2021 to express their views on Health and COVID-19 Response, Education and Innovation, and Ensuring Sustainability and Resilient Futures.

“I am pleased that our youth delegates have spent the last few weeks forging friendships and developing a greater appreciation of the work of ASEAN and Italy,’’ said Secretary General of ASEAN Dato Lim Jock Hoi, in his pre-recorded remarks. ‘’Collaborative and youth-led initiatives such as this event are crucial to establishing people-to-people links and providing the youth a voice in our efforts to address contemporary and future challenges,” he concluded.

During the 2-day conference, the students formulated a Joint Communiqué encompassing recommendations to strengthen cooperation between ASEAN and Italy in the years to come, particularly on issues affecting the lives of young people in both regions.

At the Closing Ceremony, youth delegates presented the Joint Communiqué to Esti Andayani, Ambassador of Indonesia to Italy as Chair of ASEAN Committee in Rome (ACR), as well as representatives of the Embassies of ACR, Secretary-General of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC) Elisabetta Belloni, President of the Italy-ASEAN Association Prof. Romano Prodi and the ASEAN Secretariat’s Director of Human Development of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Department Rodora T. Babaran.

The conference took place after the completion of a 4-week training programme on diplomacy and international relations under the patronage of the Italian MFAIC, the Embassies of the ACR, the Italy-ASEAN Association, and the Centre for International Studies. It was held in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat, the Indonesia’s Study Centre of Universitas Pendidikan Nasional, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the ASEAN Youth Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies  and Binario F from Facebook.

Global Action hosted and organised the conference, meanwhile the ASEAN Secretariat facilitated a training session to brief the students on ASEAN-Italy Relations and ASEAN’s priorities on youth development.

In September 2020, Italy received the status of Development Partner of ASEAN to enhance relations between the two sides and to further deepen the ASEAN-EU Dialogue Partnership. Global Action celebrates this new level of ASEAN-Italy cooperation by initiating an international programme dedicated to high school students.