Dr Kayo Inaba, Kyoto University's executive vice-president for gender equality, international affairs, and public relations, attended the 4th ASEAN-Japan Workshop held on 20 April 2017 in Bali, Indonesia.
The ASEAN-Japan Workshop is organized annually by the Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum as an opportunity for Japanese and ASEAN representatives of government, industry, and academia to meet, network, and discuss common issues and collaboration opportunities in science and technology, with a focus on the needs of the international community.
Themed "Technological Innovation for Economic Development", the 2017 workshop was co-organized with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) of the Republic of Indonesia, with support from the Embassy of Japan in Indonesia, the Mission of Japan to ASEAN, the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia (RISTEK DIKTI), and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). Approximately 125 attended from universities, research institutions, and the government and business sectors in Japan and several ASEAN member countries.
The workshop began with welcome remarks from Dr Tomihiro Taniguchi, senior advisor at the STS forum, Dr Unggul Priyanto, chairman of BPPT, and Mr Yasushi Akahoshi, president of JETRO. An opening address was then delivered by Ambassador Kazuo Sunaga of the Japan Mission to ASEAN, followed by keynote speeches by His Excellency Professor Mohamad Nasir, minister of research, technology, and higher education of the Republic of Indonesia, and Professor Jusman Syafii Djamal, chairman of the Matsushita Gobel Foundation, Indonesia.
The main program was comprised of two roundtable presentation and discussion sessions: one on "Innovation for Economic Development: Collaboration Among Research Institutions, Academia, Industries and Government", held in the morning, and the other on "Smart Cities for Sustainable Development" in the afternoon. EVP Inaba delivered a presentation in the former session, introducing several of Kyoto University's ongoing collaborative research projects with partners in Southeast Asia.
The 5th ASEAN-Japan Workshop is scheduled to take place in the Philippines in 2018, and the STS forum's 14th Annual Meeting will be held on 1–3 October 2017 in Kyoto.