Good evening Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I am pleased to be here this evening to join in what promises to be a stellar celebration of friendship and diversity.
I would like to congratulate the SIF-ASEAN Student Fellows for completing the Fellowship programme. After spending an entire semester here, you will be returning to your home countries in two days' time. Once home, you will have lots of catching up to do. My guess is that you would want to hear about what's been happening first from your family and friends, and from your boyfriends and girlfriends. There will be changes at the community-level with which you will need to acquaint yourself. And for some, you will go home to a new leadership - the Indonesian Fellows have a new President, elected directly for the first time. Our Cambodian friends have a new King.
These are indeed exciting times for our region. Southeast Asia has seen a spate of elections and leadership changes in the last year or so, bringing about renewal, rejuvenation and fresh hopes for the future. Our government leaders met at the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos, which ended just a week ago, and renewed friendships amongst the 10-member nations. The Summit also spelled out plans for even greater ASEAN integration through the Vientiane Action Programme and Plans of Action for the ASEAN Security Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. Together with the Plan of Action for the ASEAN Economic Community which was adopted by the Leaders in Bali in 2003, ASEAN is working towards establishing an ASEAN Community among the ASEAN countries which would be closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing for the purpose of ensuring durable peace, stability and shared prosperity in the region.
But I am sure that our group of 42 young friends don't need me to tell them about closer ASEAN integration - they have lived it in their past five months here. I will, instead, mention another development: the increasing economic integration at an Asian level.
In Vientiane, ASEAN leaders also met up with their counterparts from China, India, Japan and South Korea for parallel summits. This is part of an ongoing process of closer economic cooperation between ASEAN and these rising powers. Vientiane also saw the launch of the commemorative summit between ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand.
What is the significance of all this to our ASEAN Fellows? It means that now, there will be more opportunities than ever for talented ASEAN youths such as yourselves to spread your wings. With greater economic cooperation and increased trade and investment amongst partner countries, more positions will be available to you, both at home and abroad. The economic recovery following the Asian financial crisis and the SARS epidemic will further bolster job prospects.
Your experience of living and studying overseas and your exposure to working in a multi-cultural environment give you an edge over your contemporaries who have not been as lucky as you. So things are indeed looking up for you, and there is much cause for optimism.
But, while you reach for the stars, which is incidentally the theme for this evening's celebrations, it is important to keep your feet planted firmly on the ground. The future holds its fair share of challenges. Firstly, ASEAN continues to confront the threat of international terrorism and all its associated problems. Around us, there are constant reminders that we must continue to be vigilant against radical elements that think nothing of killing innocent lives to achieve their objectives.
ASEAN also faces the challenge of trans-national crime, which ranges from international piracy to the trafficking of drugs, women, and children. Poverty and development issues are other major concerns. On a socio-cultural level, there is also a need to preserve our cultural identity from the homogenising tendencies of globalisation.
To the ASEAN Fellows, it is therefore imperative that, as you progress in your careers and take up leadership positions in your various fields, you do not lose sight of the needs of your larger society. Many of the challenges I have highlighted require the concerted effort of all the ASEAN countries working in tandem, be it at the level of governments, businesses or NGOs. For the young people gathered here tonight, the network that you have built here and the first-hand contact with other youths from the region would have given you a better understanding of the societies and systems of the different countries in the region, .
On that note, I would like to bid farewell to the ASEAN Fellows of batch 2004 and wish you all the best for your future endeavours. I hope you have enjoyed your stay here thoroughly. Singapore is proud to have hosted you, the future leaders of ASEAN, who will no doubt work together to bring this region towards a brighter future.
Before I make way for the "stars" of this evening, I would also like to commend the Singapore International Foundation for having run this Fellowship programme so successfully over the past 12 years and facilitating the network of ASEAN's next generation of leaders in the political, business and civic society sectors. This programme, together with other programmes run by SIF's International Networking, International Volunteerism and Youth Expedition Project clusters, have greatly contributed to the development of people-to-people links in this region and beyond. In a globalised world, such links are critical to ensure that our region continues to engage our neighbours and friends, and play our part on the global stage. I hope that SIF will keep up this good work, and I wish you all the best for the year ahead.
Thank you.