Business Focus ASEAN Report

Study Trip to Indonesia and Malaysia

26th June – 12th July 2010

Export-oriented Management

Hospitality kindly provided by:

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Many thanks to our Sponsors:

Thank you all for your

kind support!

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DISCLAIMER

The information delivered in this study report is based on minutes taken by the IMC Export

and Tourism fellows. It can be seen as a summary of what has been presented and discussed

during the meetings in Indonesia and Malaysia. Due to misunderstandings or misperceptions

on the part of the participants, these minutes may be subject of errors. Therefore, any

quotation from this text is discouraged.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At this point, we would like to acknowledge all the people who made this unique study trip,

which no other university in Austria has ever conducted, possible. First and foremost, we

would like to express our gratitude to Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic, Chairperson for International

Law and Global Political Studies at the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems. Besides

many in-house visits of speakers from all over the world, and years of consecutive visits to all

relevant organisations in Vienna (UN, OSCE, OPEC, EC), Geneva (WTO, ECE, UNCTAD,

ILO, IRC, WIPO, ITU) and Paris (WB, UNESCO, OECD, ICC), he initiated, developed and

organized this special project for the second consecutive time. We do deeply appreciate all

the time, passion and effort Prof. Bajrektarevic invested throughout the past months. Without

his personal reputation and contacts, none of us would have had the chance to benefit from

such a diverse, informative and highly inspiring programme.

Secondly, we would like to thank to our sponsors, especially to the Austrian Chamber of

Commerce, but also to our own fellows who worked on sponsorship. We send our

compliments to Ms. Mag. Busarin Lertchavalitsakul our special guest from Thailand for

entrusting us and joining the group as our special guest.

Due tribute goes likewise to each and every organizer, participant and speaker of all visited

Indonesian and Malaysian (business, governmental, international or cultural) entities. We

convey our special thanks to the ASEAN Deputy Secretary General and the Secretariat

officials for hosting us at the headquarters of the organization. Let us also state gratefully the

support given by both EU Delegations, in Jakarta and in Kuala Lumpur.

We would also like to emphasize our gratitude to our “fellows” from the Diplomatic

Academies in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur for preparing such unique events and exchanging

opinions and views also outside of the premises and lectures.

We are expressing deepest signs of appreciation for hosting our group on the side of Mr. Y. P.

Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry within the

premises of the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) in Kuala Lumpur.

To conclude with, we thank to our Austrian hosts and guests; H.E. Ambassador Ms. Andrea

Wicke in Kuala Lumpur and H.E. Ambassador Dr. Klaus Wölfer in Jakarta as well as Dr.

Franz Schröder, trade delegate for Malaysia and Brunei and Mag. Herwig Neuper, deputy

trade delegate for Indonesia.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 12

2 Timetable .......................................................................................................................... 15

3 Destinations ...................................................................................................................... 22

3.1 Indonesia .................................................................................................................... 22

3.2 Malaysia..................................................................................................................... 24

4 Monday, 28th

June 2010 ................................................................................................... 26

4.1 Day-long excursion to Bandung ................................................................................ 26

4.2 Bandung and the Tangkuban Perahu Volcano .......................................................... 26

4.3 Visit to the UNPAR (Universitas Katolik Parahyangan) .......................................... 28

4.4 Dinner at the Consul’s residence ............................................................................... 29

5 Tuesday, 29th

June 2010 ................................................................................................... 29

5.1 Secretary of Policy Planning and Development Agency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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5.2 Austrian Consul to Indonesia .................................................................................... 31

5.3 Spanish Ambassador to Indonesia ............................................................................. 31

5.4 Director Deputy of the ASEAN Directorate, MFA of the Republic of Indonesia .... 32

5.5 Director for ASEAN Political and Security Cooperation .......................................... 35

5.6 Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation ............................................................ 37

6 Wednesday, 30th

July 2010 .............................................................................................. 40

6.1 Commercial Attaché, Chamber of Commerce of Austria ......................................... 40

6.2 KADIN, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Indonesia ..................................... 42

6.3 Business and Foreign Trade Briefing, Ministry of Trade of Indonesia ..................... 44

6.4 Interactive Dialogue with Junior Diplomats, Diplomatic Academy ......................... 46

6.5 Habibie Center ........................................................................................................... 48

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6.6 Jakarta Cultural Center – Get-together with Artists and Young Diplomats .............. 50

7. Thursday, 1st July 2010 ........................................................................................................ 51

7.1 ASEAN Briefings, the EU Delegation Head and Austrian Ambassador to Indonesia . 51

7.2 Sightseeing in Jakarta, Indonesia’s National Monument and Masjid Istiqlal ............... 54

7.3 Reception at the Residence of the Austrian Ambassador H.E. Klaus Wölfer ............... 54

7 Saturday, 3rd July 2010 .................................................................................................... 56

7.1 Excursion to the National Museum and Taman Mini................................................ 56

8 Monday, 5th July 2010 ..................................................................................................... 60

8.1 Trip to Pelegong home stay and Kuala Lumpur City Tour ....................................... 60

Tuesday, July 6th

2010 .............................................................................................................. 64

8.2 Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) .............................................. 64

8.3 Intercultural essentials in Thailand, Burma and Laos ............................................... 69

8.4 EU trade and economic relations with Malaysia/ASEAN ......................................... 70

8.5 Doing business in Malaysia (WKÖ) .......................................................................... 74

8.6 Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) ......................... 75

8.7 Barbecue-Reception with IDFR Members ................................................................ 77

9 Wednesday, 7th

July 2010 ................................................................................................ 78

9.1 Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ..................................................................... 78

9.2 Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations – Rio + 20 ......................................... 79

9.3 Malaysian Tourism Centre - Mak Yung Theatre ....................................................... 81

9.4 Dinner at the Residence of the Austrian Ambassador ............................................... 82

10 Thursday, 8th

July 2010 .................................................................................................... 83

10.1 Meeting with Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir at the IDFR premises ....... 83

10.2 Ministry of Tourism ............................................................................................... 87

10.3 Malaysian Federal Parliament ................................................................................ 90

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11 Friday, 9th

July 2010 ......................................................................................................... 95

11.1 Day-long excursion to Melaka ............................................................................... 95

11.2 Graveyard in Bukit China ...................................................................................... 95

11.3 Stadhuys Christ Church ......................................................................................... 97

11.4 Eva Moser old fort ................................................................................................. 97

11.5 City Council of Melaka .......................................................................................... 98

11.6 River Cruise ......................................................................................................... 101

11.7 Melaka Tower ...................................................................................................... 101

12 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 102

13 Personal Comments ........................................................................................................ 104

14 ASEAN – related events organized at the IMC by prof. Anis ....................................... 108

15 Contact information ........................................................................................................ 110

16 Credits ............................................................................................................................ 115

Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic addressing the BFA audience in the ASEAN HQ Plenary Room 01.07.2010 1

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FOREWORD – BFA 2010

For the past two decades, I have successfully organized some 120 round-tables and events, by

which I was the honored host of close to 100 ambassadors, dozens of ministers and state

secretaries, three EU commissioners, notable authors (including Pulitzer winners), thinkers

and researchers – to sum up: probably over 8,000 persons took part in these events.

Additionally, for years I have been developing and conducting some 25 study trips to relevant

international FORA in Vienna, Geneva, Paris and SEA (in total, close to 2,000 participants

taking part in these trips). One may say, ready and equal to any challenge. Well, yes, up to

BFA 2 in 2010.

Those versed in astrology would describe 2010 to the year of Metal or White Tiger,

characterized by ups and downs; soaring heights and traumatic downfalls. Indeed, the unique

concept of BFA, which is by its vision and passion linking the best of public diplomacy and

business networking, aiming to horizontalize the vision and idea, institutions and

instruments of the great EU and ASEAN model of life, was tested and challenged this year.

Firstly, our already tight budget was further constrained by unfortunate events in the euro

zone. In the first semester of 2010, Euro was constantly losing value against all major

(including all relevant Asian) currencies which, at point of our departure, made our trip 20-

25% more expensive in real terms. Secondly, the original plan was to situate the BFA in the

Thai and Malaysian capitals. The tragic events that engulfed streets of Bangkok in the spring

were particularly emotional to us - dear faces in suffering confrontation. On the operative

level, this meant a severe setback: our already finalized 7-day program in Bangkok,

elaborated up to the smallest detail, had to be abandoned overnight. Months of tedious

preparations seemed in vane: by mid May (only 6 weeks before departure), I didn’t know

whether we could afford the trip and if so, where it would take us.

And, here is the final result:

In late June-early July of 2010, the next group of 32 EXP senior students and recent graduates

(of 8 nationalities) have experienced 15 memorable days in two ASEAN countries: Indonesia

and Malaysia. The score of BFA2 is impressive: over 50 hours of in-class presentations and

discussions have been conducted at the Diplomatic Academies of Indonesia and of Malaysia

as well as at the HQ of ASEAN, with the hospitality provided by the EU Delegations as well

as the Austrian ambassadors in both countries (not to forget the courtesy visits and talks at the

national Trade and Foreign ministries as well as national think-tanks and local universities).

All together some 250 persons took part (including the young diplomats of both countries

along the EXP fellows). The BFA II have been addressed by as many as 40 speakers of 15

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nationalities (among which 25 field experts of senior level), including the ASEAN’s Deputy

Secretary General, 4 Ministers and 6 ambassadors. The EXP fellows additionally experienced

40 hours of study/cultural outdoor visits in Jakarta, Bandung, KL and Melaka which included

memorable theatrical performances (and also back-stage talks with artists) as well as visits to

the country side, museums, exhibitions, cultural sites and the so-called home-stay.

It can be safely claimed that the BFA by its content, magnitude, number of participants as

well as by its symbolism of envisioning and inspiring effects, represents one of the biggest

and most unique academic exchanges between Austria/EU and ASEAN region of the last two

decades.

Thus, before closing my foreword to this year’s report, I feel very much obliged to thank all

persons who shared our passion and vision, and whose far-sighted understanding and

generous assistance made the BFA 2 possible at last:

First of all, I’d like to thank to H.E. Ms. Nongnuth Phetcharatana, Ambassador of Thailand to

Austria and Vienna-based IOs and her team (including Ms. Soonthriya Kanchana) for giving

us her full support and understanding, even at the moment when we – fearing for the safety of

the participants– officially cancelled the Thai part of BFA 2, and decided to divert it to

Jakarta. Her continuous trust in our project deserves a due note. Secondly, I would like to

express a special thanks to H.E. Mr. I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, Ambassador of Indonesia to

Austria and Vienna-based IOs, Mr. Muhammad Takdir and the mission’s team for the

encouragement and great support at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry; Ambassador Puja and

Austrian Ambassador in Jakarta, Dr. Klaus Wölfer who literally saved the BFA 2, by

accepting to host us at such a short notice, 5-6 weeks before our planned departure. Further

on, a due tribute goes to our friends from the Malaysian embassy in Vienna, the former

Ambassador, H.E. Dato’ M.H. Arshad, Charge-de-affairs Mr. Ismail Salam (a person of little

words but great deeds), and newly appointed ambassador H.E. Ikram Bin Yaakob for

continued support, sharing vision and liaisoning details of our program with the authorities in

KL.

My thanks also goes to Ambassador Peterlik and his team for willingness to take a part in our

program this year again (although in the end we didn’t manage to come to Bangkok). Austrian

Ambassador to Malaysia, H.E. Ms. Andrea Wicke and her team gave us a full support and we

are particularly thankful for it. H.E. Wicke encouraged and helped us to divert to Jakarta, and

repeatedly entrusted my graduates to obtain their internship at her mission – deeds that we

read as a big compliment. The Austrian Ambassador to Indonesia, H.E. Klaus Wölfer, his

deputy Ms. Romana Königsbrun and the entire mission-team gave us a decisive and full

support although we have turned to them literally at the last minute. We are very grateful for

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their trust, commitment and time spent on BFA2, but also for offering an internship at the

mission to our graduate. The same tribute goes to the Austrian Honorary Consul in Bandung,

Mr. Eduard E. Sugiri – so instrumental and helpful in the Bandung segment.

Regrettably, this year we didn’t enjoy the great hospitality given to us in 2009 by the EU

Delegation in Bangkok and UN ESCAP. However, we express our thanks for the renewed

invitation to H.E. Amb. David Lipman, Delegation Head and his team as well as to our

friends at the UN Bangkok. We would also like to thank to H.E. Amb. Julian Wilson, the EU

Delegation Head and his deputy Mr. Jan-Willem Blankert in Jakarta as well as to H.E.

Amb.Vincent Piket, the EU Delegation Head and his deputy Mr. Alessandro Paolicchi in

Kuala Lumpur for their support and expertise shared. I may proudly say that their support to

the BFA project goes well beyond this summer event. Both missions will host our senior

students for 6 months work within the Delegations’ premises.

The personal encouragement to come to the ASEAN premises by the Secretary General H.E.

Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, and the hospitality given by his deputy H.E. Misran Karmain and the

ASEAN Secretariat Senior Experts was indeed a rare and great honour to all of us. We are

very grateful and thankful for this.

I would also like to thank the Indonesian Foreign and Trade Ministry officials for their great

collaboration and impressive speakers. Due tribute goes to the Director of Diplomatic

Academy and his team – our principal Jakarta host, to the Habibie centre Think-tank as well

as the Catholic University Bandung – for the warm welcome, hospitality and expertise shared.

We shouldn’t forget the memorable get-together events with the Indonesian junior diplomats

whose eloquence, hospitality and charm deeply impressed all of the BFA 2 participants.

Due tribute goes to H.E. Ms. Aurora Bernández, Spanish Ambassador to Indonesia whose

presentation on the Spanish EU Presidency priorities engaged us in a session of sharing deep

thoughts. Also, we feel obliged to thank to Mr. David Parsons and his charming team of the

Kadin/Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as to the Austrian Trade

Representative Dr. Hermann Ortner and his alternate Mag. Herwig Neuper for the expertise

they generously shared with us. Finally, we thank the media (especially Ms. Icha) for

expressing their interest in our project and providing the local news coverage.

Turning to Malaysia, I feel obliged to express our sincere thanks, first of all, to the former

Head of IDFR (Malaysian Diplomatic Academy), H.E. Amb. Tan Sri Hasmy Agam as well as

to the current IDFR Head, Senior Director H.E. Amb. Abdullah Faiz Mohd Zain, Deputy

Director Mr. Vasudiwan Narayanan and the entire IDFR team for having faith in us, and

offering the historic Treaty Room as the venue place. The IDFR assistance was enormous,

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substantively and technically warm and timely, and we can hardly find the appropriate words

to give all the thanks to Senior Director Amb. Faiz and his team. Hereby, we should also note

the memorable get-together barbecue with the participants of the IDFR Diplomatic course

which has been enjoyed deeply by the young European and Asian fellows (and probably

marked the beginning of many lasting friendships).

Surely one of the most memorable moments of the BFA 2 was the address of H.E. Dato’

Mukhriz Mahathir, Minister Deputy of Intl. Trade and Industry at the IDFR. His speech

“Business for the new century” made a deep impact on the participants. But this was not all;

H.E. Mahathir generously and quite spontaneously appeared at the Federal Parliament and

spent more than an additional hour in a warm and frank conversation with our fellows. We

thank to H.E. Minister Deputy (to his advisors Mr. Hafeez Basri and Mr. Isa Farhin Abdullah

too) for this great honour, but also for kindly opening us a door to the MITI’s MATRADE.

Due tribute goes to the Foreign Affairs officials for the courtesy-call to Wisma Putra–

Putrajaya, the warm welcome and valuable presentations. We are very grateful to H.E. Mohd

Halimi Ibrahim, MOTOUR’s Undersecretary-General and his team for the great hospitality.

We can hardly find the appropriate words of appreciation and thanks for the Ministry

briefings, and especially for the restaging of Mak Yong show at the MATIC exclusively for

the BFA 2 group. We shouldn’t forget to sincerely thank Mr. Zaidi Kassim, Director Deputy

TM Frankfurt and Ms. Noor Aine Ismail, MOTOUR IMD Director Deputy for being so

instrumental in the program outcomes (especially on the Home-stay and MATIC segment).

Many thanks go to Senator Mr. Ahmad Bin Hussin, the Federal Parliament’s Senate House

member for welcoming my idea to pay a visit to the Federal Parliament, and for arranging the

breathtaking Senate plenary room for our briefings with the MPs. The Parliament staff was

very kind and highly professional, and I want to thank them for their hospitality and expertise.

We are particularly grateful to H.E. Dato’Saifuddin Abdullah, Minister Deputy of Higher

Education, to H.E. Datuk Rosnah Shirlin, Minister Deputy of Health, and Ms. Fong Po Kuan,

House speaker of the DAP, for finding the time and giving us great briefings in the Senate

Room.

We are also thankful to the officials of the Melaka City Council for their contribution to our

visit to the historic city of Melaka. Their warm welcome and kind hospitality deeply

impressed all the participants. Let us also note H.E. Amb. Datuk Ting Weng Lien, Mag.

Busarin Lertchavalitsakul, notable author and professor Murray Hunter as well as the

Austrian Trade Representative Dr. Franz Schröder with many thanks for their valuable

contributions.Together with young diplomats from Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, over two

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hundred people gave their direct contribution to this excellent outcome of the BFA 2. As a

token of our deep appreciation and sincere thanks, we dedicate this report to them.

Finally, due thanks go to all our sponsors in Austria. The BFA is predominantly financed by

participants themselves, and any contribution meant a lot for it; reduced the final costs and

improved the program outreach. We are particularly grateful for the lasting support of the

Austrian Trade Chamber (WKÖ) as well as the Austrian Foreign and Science Ministry who

tacitly supported most of my Geneva–Paris study trips, but also recognized the uniqueness of

the model of horizontal (academic and practical) exchange between Austria/EU and ASEAN

in the Business Focus ASEAN concept.

The vision to mobilize, expose and sensitize young fellows, to link two distant regions of the

world for the lasting benefit of both, to make new friendships and reaffirm old; to inspire,

envision, encourage, boost and employ generations of young Europeans and Asians have

become reality in September 20091 and continued in early summer of 2010. It is fair to say

that the BFA 2009 and BFA 2010 participants are the young professionals who developed

affiliation and strong personal and professional bonds within the three countries of the

ASEAN growth triangle they visited, and these precious links are here to live and prosper for

many decades to come.

To effectively challenge the exceptionalism, ignorance and anti-intellectualism necessitates

these constant efforts: A unique BFA voyage, with all of its practical and symbolic meanings,

therefore must continue. The grand concepts of the EU and of ASEAN may live only if their

vision and idea, institutions and instruments are horizontalized. This is our contribution to the

societies and business, and the way we want to see our youth in the near future.

Vienna/Krems 10 NOV 10

Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic

1 In September of 2009, some 30 EXP senior students and recent graduates (of 7 nationalities) have experienced

15 remarkable days in two Asian countries residing in the heart of SEA; over 60 hours of in-house lectures and

30 hours of study/cultural outdoor visits, 40 speakers of 19 nationalities (among which 15 field experts of senior

level), also 4 ambassadors, one minister, one senator, H.M. Sultan of Perlis and late Malaysian king, as well as

the King’s brother - the State Secretary of Perlis – in short, was an outcome of the BFA 2009 (for detailed

overview, images, impressions and the particularities of the last year program, please refer to 160 page report).

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1 Introduction

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things”2

- this is what 32 students understood in June this year.

Let us however, start at the beginning, and as it is the case with all great undertakings –

everything commences with a vision.

It was the vision to mobilize, expose and sensitize young fellows, to link two distant regions

of the world for the good of both, to broaden horizons, to make new friendships and reaffirm

old; all together to inspire, encourage, mobilize and boost young generations.

Indeed a very ambitious idea which nevertheless materialized in summer 2010 when for the

second consecutive time, a group of enthusiastic students and graduates of the IMC

University of Applied Sciences, Krems undertook a truly unique journey.

MITI’s Minister Deputy, Dr. Mukhriz Mahathir and prof. Anis Bajrektarevic, Kuala Lumpur IDFR Treaty Room 2

2 Henry Miller

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In the framework of the “Export-oriented Management” Program a project was put into life

which intends to link the best of public diplomacy with business networking. It is supposed to

contrast and compare two selected countries of a particular region which senior students and

recent graduates explore over two weeks.

Under the project name “Business Focus Study Trip” this year’s journey was dedicated to the

ASEAN, more precisely to the vibrant and dynamic countries of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Being one of the fastest growing regions in the world, demonstrating impressive economic

power and seemingly incomparable development, Asia is said to be of particular interest to

aspiring international business professionals – and we soon understood why.

By dint of over 50 hours of in-class lectures at the Diplomatic Academies of Indonesia and

Malaysia as well as at the HQ of ASEAN, through the contributions of 40 speakers from 15

nationalities including ASEAN’s Deputy Secretary General, 4 Ministers and 6 Ambassadors

and by means of a variety of cultural events and undertakings, we had the chance to

experience the inspiring, ongoing dynamics of this region.

from r. to l. prof. Anis Bajrektarevic, EU Delegation Head Amb. Julian Wilson, Austrian Amb. Klaus Woelfer,

ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General Misran Karmain, Jakarta 01.07.2010 3

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Yet, economic growth and promising business opportunities are characteristics of the region

we could have learned about by other means as well. And although these aspects form

important parts of the impressions we have gained during our journey, this was not what made

the trip a unique venture. In June this year, some 30 students – most of them for the very first

time – were confronted with the warm heartedness, the generosity and the cultural versatility

of people with a completely different background who through their open minded and

welcoming attitude have found a distinct place in our memories.

By immersing into a different way of life, definition of values, perception of time and

approach to the own environment we did not only get to know another culture, we started

understanding, partially appreciating, partially scrutinizing, our own roots. And while some of

us might have experienced a cultural shock when entering the two amazing countries of

Malaysia and Indonesia, others experienced it when coming back home. Still, it does not

matter in which way the trip influenced us, the important thing is that it did and hence, BFA

2010 enriched the lives of every participant – and for every single one in its own way.

Before inviting you to share with us, through this report, the unforgettable impressions we

have made during a journey which has enhanced our understanding of cultural diversity,

regional cooperation and business prospects we would like to express our deepest gratitude to

the person who made this experience possible - Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic. As Chairperson

of the International Law and Global Political Studies Division at our university he might give

us hard times during exams and briefings but he constantly forces us to think “outside the

box” and tries to make us believe that – as Mahatma Gandhi would say – we should be the

change we want to see in the world. In this spirit, we wish you enjoyable reading.

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2 Timetable

Itinerary, Indonesia – Malaysia 27 June – 12 July 2010

Place Programme

Saturday, June 26th

2010 – Sunday, June 27th

2010

Vienna

Dubai

Jakarta

13:30: (CET) meeting of the group in front of the Emirates desk

14:00: check-in

15:30-22:55: Flight Vienna – Dubai EK 128

22:55-03:15: (CET -3) Meeting of the EXP Alumni / Shopping / Rest

04:15-15:55: Flight Dubai – Jakarta EK 356

15:55 (CET -5) Meeting at the Exit Gate, Organized escort to the hotel

17:15-17:30: Hotel Check-In

17:45-open: Afternoon and Evening Free, Rest and exploring the city lights

18:00-18.20: Welcome word by Prof. Anis & speed orientation meeting

20:30-open: Optionally – joint dinner, city downtown

Monday, June 28th 2010

Jakarta

Central

Indonesia

07:30: breakfast at hotel

08:00–22:00: Day-long excursion

Visiting the Tanbkuban Perahu Volcanoo

Visit of the UNPAR (Universitas Katolik Parahyangan) in Bandung

Dinner at the Consul’s residence

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Tuesday, June 29th 2010

Jakarta 07:30: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

08:00: Departure for Pusdiklat

09:00 BFA – First session day/IDA

09:00-10:00: Introduction and welcome by Mr. Yusra Khan, Secretary for

Policy Planning and Development Agency, Republic of Indonesia

10:00 – 11:00 : Keynote speech Mr. Michael-Jan Swoboda, Consul in absentia

of H.E. Klaus Wölfer, Austrian Amb. to Indonesia

11:00-12:00: H.E. Aurora Bernández, Spanish Ambassador to Indonesia

12:00–13:00: Lunch/Coffee Break

13:00-14:00: Mr. Sugeng Wahono, Deputy Director, Directorate of ASEAN,

Dialogue Partner and Inter-regional Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

14:00-15:00: Mr. Ade Padmo Sarwono, Director for ASEAN Political and

Security Cooperation, Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Indonesia

15:00-16:00: Mr. Benyamin Carnadi, Directorate General of ASEAN

Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Indonesia

17:00-open: Joint Networking dinner with the Diplomatic Academy attendees and

members of the Alumni

Wednesday, June 30th 2010

Jakarta 07:30: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

08:00: Departure for Pusdiklat

09:00- 10:00: Austro-briefing (Tour-de-Table), Mag. Herwig Neuper,

Commercial Attaché

10:00-11:00: Kadin, Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry

11:00-12:00: Business and Foreign Trade Briefing,

Ministry of Trade of Indonesia

12:00-13:00: Lunch/Coffee break

13:00-14:00: Interactive Dialogue, Junior Diplomats from the Diplomatic Academy

15:00-17:00: Habibie Center, Interactive Dialogue, Ms. Rahimah Abdulrahim

Prof. Dr. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, The Associate Director for Research

18:00-open: Joint Networking Buffet

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Thursday, July 1st 2010

Jakarta 07:30: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

08:00: Departure for ASEAN Secretariat

09:00 – 09:20: Introduction, Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic

09:20 – 09:30: Welcome note, H.E. Amb. Julian Wilson,

The EU Delegation Head

09:30 – 09:40: Welcome note , H.E. Klaus Wölfer,

Austrian Ambassador to Indonesia

09:40–09:50: Coffee Break

09:50 – 10:30: Tour de Table, Introduction of BFA participants (Q&A)

10:30 – 12:00: Speed dating – ASEAN briefings

(Economy, trade, FDI, telecommunication, energy, environment,

political cooperation within the ASEAN, ASEAN + 3+3,

EU-ASEAN, ASEAN – APEC, ASEAN and the world)

12:00–13:00: Lunch/Coffee Break

14:00 – 17:00: Sightseeing in Jakarta

Indonesia National Monument, Masjid Istiqal

18:00-22:00: Joint Networking buffet – Ambassador call Klaus Wölfer

Friday, July 2nd 2010

Jakarta

08:30: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

Free Entire Day

Sightseeing: Monas, Presidential Palace, Museum Nasional, Taman Mini

Shopping: Plaza Indonesia, Plaza Senayan, Pasaraya Grande or Blok M Plaza – all close to

hotel, Markets/Antique shops: Javanese

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Saturday, July 3rd 2010

Jakarta

City

Suburbia

08:00: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

09:00-12:00: Museum National Jakarta

12:00–13:00: Lunch Break

13:00 – 16:30: Taman Mini

18:00-18:30: return to hotel

Sunday, July 4th 2010

Jakarta

Malaysia

KL

09:00: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

10:00-10:30: Check Out & Meeting in the lobby

11:00: joint transfer to the airport

14:50: Flight AK 385 JKT (CKG) – KL (LCC)

17:50: Arrival to KL’s LCCT – (CET -6; Jakarta time – 1)

18:00-19:15: Organized transfer

19:30-20:00: Hotel Check in & free time

20:30-20.45: Welcome word by Prof. Anis & speed orientation meeting

Monday, July 5th 2010

KL

Malaysia

07:30: (CET -6) Breakfast at hotel

09:00–17:00: KL City Tour

Home Stay afternoon with supper/late lunch

Bus tour through KL

19:00-19:30: return to hotel & free time

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Tuesday, July 6th 2010

KL

Malaysia

09:00: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

09:30: transfer to the IDFR, registration

10:00-11:30: Opening /Treaty Room, Welcome speech/note

H.E. Andrea Wicke, Ambassador to Malaysia

H.E. Ambassador Abdullah Faiz Zaim, Senior Director of IDFR

11:30-12:00: Welcome note, H.E. Amb. Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, Executive

Chairman of IDFR, Foreign Ministry Malaysia

12:00-13:30: Tour de Table, Introduction of participants and BFA-BKK 13:30-14:00:

Light snack & coffee break

14:00-15:00: Intercultural essentials In Thailand, Burma and Laos,

Mag. Busarin Lertchavalitsakul, Thailand

15:15 – 16:00 Expert’s view, EU trade and economic relations with

Malaysia/ASEAN, Mr Alessandro Paolicchi, Head of the Trade&

Econ. Section, EU Delegation to Malaysia

16:00-16:30: Country Report of Malaysia by the WKO,

Dr. Franz Schröder, Austrian Trade Commissioner for Malaysia

17:00-18:00: Visit at Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation

(MATRADE)

19:00 – 22:30: Joint Networking dinner with the IDFR participants, speakers &

Austrian Embassy members (garden cocktail & barbecue)

20

Wednesday, July 7th 2010

KL

Malaysia

09:00: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

09:30 transfer to the IDFR, registration

10:00-12:00: Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

Mr. Mohd. Aznor Mahat

12:15-13:30: Economy, Development and Environment – Rio +20

Ms. Datuk Ting Weng Lien, Malaysian Ambassador of Environmental

Issues on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

13:30-14:30 Light snack & coffee break

15:00-17:00: Performance at the Malaysian Tourism Centre (MATIC)

18:30-22:00: Networking Dinner, Residence of the Austrian Ambassador

H.E. Wicke

Thursday, July 8th 2010

KL

Malaysia

09:00: (CET -5) breakfast at hotel

09:30: transfer to the KLCC, registration

10:00-12:00: Malaysia’s path to political and economic stability,

Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, Deputy Minister,

Ministry of International Trade and Industry

13:30-15:30: Ministry of Tourism, Mr. Mohd Halimi Ibrahim,

Under Secretary of International Affairs Divison

16:00-18:30: Malaysian Houses of Parliament

Friday, July 9th 2010

KL

Melaka

Malaysia

08:00: (CET -6) breakfast at hotel

08:30–19:30: Day-long excursion to Melaka

Graveyard in Bukit China

Stadhuys Christ Church

Eva Moser – old fort

City Council of Melaka

River Cruise

Melaka Tower

21

Saturday, July 10th 2010

KL

Malaysia

09:00: (CET -6) breakfast at hotel

09:00-open: Free day, e.g. Bukit Bintang (opt. little India, little Nepal, etc.)

Sunday, July 11th 2010 – Monday, July 12th 2010

KL

Dubai

Vienna

12:30: (CET - 6) Hotel Check-out

22:30: Departure time, joint transfer to the airport

02:00-04:50: Flight KL – Dubai EK 343

04:30-09:55: (CET -3) Shopping / Rest

09:55-13:45: Flight Dubai – Vienna EK 127

22

3 Destinations

3.1 Indonesia

“Unity in Diversity”, the national motto of Indonesia, is a term that strikes deep into the heart

of this dynamic Southeast Asian nation. Few places offer such cultural variety and

geographical complexity as Indonesia.

The world’s largest archipelago is spread across a chain of more than 17,000 islands between

Asia and Australia. As a result, the islands offer a stunning variety of topographies and

ecologies, volcanoes and mountains, as well as unexplored rain forests.

The country has a total dimension of 1,912,988 km² with approximately 234 million

inhabitants. Indonesia is the forth most populated country in the world after China, India and

the United States. More than half of the population lives on the main island Java, where

Indonesia’s capital Jakarta is located. About 88 per cent of the population is Muslim, eight per

cent Christian, two per cent Hindu, one per cent Buddhist and about one per cent of the

population believes in natural religions. Indonesia is divided into 30 provinces and two

special regions and the capital district of Jakarta. The foundation of new provinces is

currently being planned (CIA “The World Factbook”).

Almost half of Indonesian's population works in the agricultural sector. Among the

agricultural products are palm oil, rice, coffee, cacao and peanuts. A lot of major companies

in Indonesia belong to the state despite the fact that the economic system has free market

structures. The global financial crisis of 2008 - 2009 did not hit Indonesia as badly as some of

its neighbors, however, millions of Indonesian citizens still live under the poverty line.

23

Indonesia’s GDP of 2009 counts 969.2 billion US dollars, which puts it in the 16th

place

worldwide. However, the industry in Indonesia only grew at an average rate of 3.9 per cent in

comparison to the average GDP growth of 5.6 per cent (Globe Asia).

The country has a lot of natural resources and a lot of multinational companies make use of

them. For example gold, liquefied natural gas, copper, wood, textiles and minerals are being

exported. Total exports in 2009 amounted to 119.5 billion US dollars. Tourism is also an

important income sector, whereby most tourists come from Australia, the USA and Europe.

Indonesia has seen great commotion in recent years, having faced the Asian financial crisis,

the fall of President Suharto after 32 years in office, the first free elections in 2004 since the

1960s, the loss of East Timor, democracy and decentralization calls from restive provinces, a

devastating tsunami, volcanic eruptions. Moreover, the country has to improve its

infrastructure and the ease of doing business in order to be able to compete on the

international market. Indonesia has a high potential to ride the wave of Asian and ASEAN

rise. Along with Thailand and Malaysia, Indonesia as a vibrant and dynamic ASEAN axis

belongs to the so-called growth triangle – an engine of the SEA economic miracle.

24

3.2 Malaysia

Malaysia offers a “truly Asian experience” as its motto states. Malaysia is a pulsating and

upcoming nation situated close to the equator in the heart of South-East Asia.

The total land mass of Malaysia amounts to 330,434 km² and is separated into two territories

– Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo – which are 640 km apart, separated by the

South China Sea. Malaysia shares land borders with Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei and has

maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. It comprises of 14 states

including the three Federal Territories – Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan – which

collectively form the 14th “state”. The states in Peninsular Malaysia are Perlis, Kedah,

Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan and

the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya; while Sabah and Sarawak compose

the two remaining states.

The state of Sabah consists of five segments, namely Tawau, Sandakan, Kudat, West Coast

and Interior. Sarawak comprises 11 divisions, namely Kuching, Sri Aman, Sibu, Miri, Sarikei,

Limbang, Kapit, Bintulu, Kota Samarahan, Mukah and Betong. The capital city of Malaysia is

Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the domicile of the Federal Government. Both Kuala

Lumpur and Putrajaya are centrically situated alongside the west coast of the peninsula.

Malaysia has plenty of natural attractions and is covered about four-fifths by tropical

rainforests, forming part of the Indo-Malayan rainforests which are the oldest in the world.

They form one of the most complex and richest ecosystems in the world, home to over 15,000

species of flowering plants and trees (9% of the world's total), and 185,000 animal species

(16% of the world's total).

25

The population accounts for over 28 million inhabitants in 2009. The Bumiputras which

comprise the Malays, the indigenous people of Sabah and Sarawak, and the aboriginal groups

of Peninsular Malaysia (the Orang Asli) form the majority (65.1%), with the Chinese at

26.0%, the Indians at 7.7%, and other ethnic groups (Eurasians, Europeans, etc) accounting

for the rest. In Sarawak, the predominant ethnic group is the Ibans, who account for 30.1% of

the state's total Malaysian citizens, followed by the Chinese (26.7%) and Malays (23.0%). In

Sabah, the predominant ethnic group is the Kadazan Dusun (18.4%), followed by the Bajau

(17.3%) and Malays (15.3%).

About 58% of the population of Malaysia are Muslim while 27% of the people are followers

of Buddhism and another 8% of the population are Hindu. Other religions like Christianity,

Daoism, Confucianism and Sikhism account for approximately 9% of the entire population.

Christianity has made a larger impact upon East Malaysia in comparison to Peninsular

Malaysia. Many indigenous people in East Malaysia have adapted Christianity as their

religion.

Malaysia is a growing market economy, well-provided with natural resources in sectors such

as agriculture, forestry and minerals. It is one of the most developed countries in the ASEAN

region. Its economy is largely dependent on manufacturing products such as electrical and

electronic products, textiles, as well as rubber-based products, followed by mining sectors.

Malaysia is also one of the world's largest exporters of palm oil, tropical timber, cocoa beans

and pepper. Tourism, science, commerce and medical tourism are the leading revenue earners.

Since Malaysia’s independence in 1957, it has diversified its economy by attracting

investment, both foreign and domestic. In 2009, the nominal GDP was USD 207,400 billion,

and the nominal per capital GDP was USD 8,100.

26

4 Monday, 28th

June 2010

4.1 Day-long excursion to Bandung

Our first day in marvelous Indonesia was dedicated

to cultural exposure. An organized guided tour was

supposed to give the BFA 2010 participants an

insight into the country’s natural, cultural and

societal richness outside of the borders of its capital

city, Jakarta. In fact, the first cultural lesson we

learned, was that people around the world perceive

time and in particular punctuality differently.

Hence, considerably delayed but not less motivated

we started our adventure tour to Bandung.

4.2 Bandung and the Tangkuban Perahu Volcano

During the bus ride from Jakarta to Bandung,

which took us more than two hours, our

enthusiastic guide eagerly provided us with

interesting and partially astonishing information

about the city we were about to pay a visit to.

Bandung, apart from being the capital of West Java

province, is the country’s third largest city,

extending over an area of around 170.00 km2 and

being inhabited by approximately 2 million people.

Due to its high elevation (768 m), Bandung is characterized by cooler temperatures than most

Indonesian cities and thanks to its advantageous topographic features – lying on a river basin

and being surrounded by volcanic mountains – Bandung provides for an impressive natural

Date: Monday, 28th

June 2010

Time: 8:00 – 23:30

Topic: Visit to the Tangkuban Perahu Volcano, Visit of the UNPAR (Universitas

Katolik Parahyangan) in Bandung, Dinner at the Consul’s residence

Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth Tiur Manurung, Dean of the UNPAR Faculty of Economics,

and Y. Purwadi Hermawan, Head of International Programs, the

Parahyangan Catholic University

Moderator: HC Consul Mr. Eduard E. Sugiri and Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

27

defense system which was the main reason for the Dutch East Indies government’s plan to

move the colony capital to that area. Yet, in historic terms Bandung does not solely play a

decisive role within Indonesian state borders. In 1955, it attracted international attention as

the host-city of the Asian-African Conference (often also referred to as the Bandung

Conference). Dedicated to the promotion of world peace and the struggle against colonialism,

the conference brought about the Declaration of Bandung and has gone down in history as the

first international conference of people of color.

From a societal and cultural perspective it has to be noted that after Indonesian independence

in 1945, Bandung developed from an idyllic resort city of plantation owners to a metropolitan

area which, despite its high density, refuse disposal issues and a traffic system one needs to

get used to, still attracts the attention of many national and international visitors, who are

captivated by its unique flair – also the BFA 2010 participants.

The first stop on our Bandung-tour took us to a tea plantation surrounding the city. The fertile

area of the Parahyangan Mountains supports

productive tea cultivation. Hence, in Bandung

agriculture still represents an important economic

pillar – similar to tourism, manufacturing or the

textile industry. The region’s economic

performance is also strongly shaped by its

approximately 50 higher educational institutions

which attract students from all over Indonesia.

We took a walk through the tea plantation and our guide

provided some instructive information with regards to the

harvesting of tea and the labor conditions of plantation

workers. Our next stop was finally aimed to be the Tangkuban

Perahu volcano.

Being a major tourist attraction, Tangkuban Parahu (which

means upturned boat in Sundanese) is located some 30 km

north of the city. Despite the fact that the volcano is considered

to be active (it last erupted in 1983), visitors can walk around

the crater and enjoy the hot water springs at close range.

Although it took us some time and energy to reach the hot

water springs – as this required a considerable march through

the humid forest – the effort was surely worth it.

28

4.3 Visit to the UNPAR (Universitas Katolik Parahyangan)

At about 5 pm we continued our excursion with a visit to

the UNPAR (Universitas Katolik Parahyangan)

University of Bandung where all of us had the

opportunity to introduce themselves and find out more

about the other participants of the BFA 2010. Professor

Bajrektarevic introduced our university and explained the

importance of strengthening the horizontal relationship

between the EU and ASEAN, especially at the level of

intercultural exposure and personal relationships between

young people.

Furthermore, Dean of the UNPAR Economic Faculty,

Dr. Elizabeth Tiur Manurung, and the Head of

International Programs, Y. Purwadi Hermawan gave us

an insight into the educational system of Indonesia with a

special focus on tertiary education. The professors, of course, also provided an overview of

the UNPAR. The language of instruction at the university is Bahasa but it also offers some

courses which are taught in English in order to attract more exchange students. The university

offers a wide range of study programs including for instance company management studies,

economic development studies, accountancy, law, public and business administration,

architecture, philosophy, mathematics and information technology and it also focuses on

research. The tuition costs at the UNPAR include a registration fee of about 1.000 Euros and

another fee of 400 Euros per semester. There also exists a scholarship system to support

students. The location of the university is excellent, as it is situated in the heart of the

industrial region of Java. Many graduates of the university are employed directly in the region

or are setting up their own businesses there as

the faculty of economics of the university

fosters entrepreneurship. An astonishing fact

we got to know at the UNPAR was that

although the university was founded by the

Catholic Church, more than two thirds of the

students there were Muslims. There even

exists a mosque at the campus which signifies

that the university is rather a secular

institution even though it is founded and

supported by the Catholics.

29

4.4 Dinner at the Consul’s residence

This first day of our trip was concluded with a nice dinner

at the fabulous residence of the Austrian Honorary Consul

in Bandung where we first had the chance to try delicious

and diverse Indonesian food. This proved to be the perfect

closure of the exiting day; a speed dating/tour-de-table

with Mr. and Mrs. Consul, the UNIPAR officials, regional

dignitaries and media representatives. (Earlier that day,

Consul has kindly brokered a special police escort for us as

to make sure that on a way from Volcano to the Bandung

downtown, we do not get stuck in the traffic like it was on

our way from Jakarta. Morning congestions that we faced,

finally caused heavy delays to the famous Museum of the

Bandung Africa-Asia conference in 1955.) The evening at

the residence was atmospheric and cordial. H.E. Consul

himself took a lot of time to talk to the students, and he was proudly showing us his art gallery

since the family is very enthusiastic about arts and culture.

Contact Information

Christian C. Henry, SE., MBA.

Lecturer of Accounting Department at

the Parahyangan Catholic University -

Faculty of Economics

Jl. Ciumbuleuit 94,

Bandung 40141 Jawa Barat,

INDONESIA

www.unpar.ac.id

Tel.: 022 – 2041964 628

Fax: 022 - 2042571

Email:

christian.henry@home.unpar.ac.id

5 Tuesday, 29th

June 2010

5.1 Secretary of Policy Planning and Development Agency, Ministry of Foreign

Affairs

Date: Tuesday, 29th

June 2010

Time: 9:00 – 10:00

Topic: The Establishment of ASEAN Community 2015

Speaker: Mr. Yusra Khan, Secretary of Policy Planning and Development Agency,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Indonesia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

30

On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the

Republic of Indonesia Mr. Khan welcomed all

participants to the opening session of the tutorial class on

“The Establishment of ASEAN Community 2015” which

was the official title for the part of our program in

Jakarta.

Mr. Khan provided us with an overview of the process of

the development of ASEAN, which was established on 8

August 1967 in Bangkok by Indonesia, Malaysia, the

Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. At that time it was

still a loose organization without a legal basis. Today its

member states have come up with a commitment to set a

common standard in form of the ASEAN Charter which

serves as a basis for establishing an integrated ASEAN

Community. The time target to accomplish this goal was set by the “Bali Concord II” to the

year 2020 and was further accelerated to be 2015.

The three pillars of the integration process which shall lead to an ASEAN Community living

in peace, stability and prosperity include the “Political Security Community”, “Economic

Community” and “Socio-Cultural Community”.

The aim of the political security community framework is to form a peaceful ASEAN with a

rules-based community of shared values and norms, a cohesive, peaceful, stable and resilient

region with shared responsibility for comprehensive security and a dynamic and outward

looking region in an increasingly integrated and interdependent world.

Economic cooperation with a view to create a single market, a competitive economic region

and integration to the global economy is another essential aspect of cooperation in ASEAN.

Developing and ensuring competition policy, customer protection, intellectual property rights,

infrastructure, taxation and business effectiveness are objectives that were mentioned by Mr.

Kahn. Besides that, he also stressed the importance of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and

Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with external partners.

A sustained development in a harmonious and people-centered ASEAN is the objective of the

socio-cultural cooperation, which includes human development, social welfare and protection,

31

social justice and rights, ensuring environmental sustainability, building an ASEAN identity

and narrowing development gaps.

The last part of Mr. Kahn’s speech was dedicated to the importance of the ASEAN – EU

dialogue which was institutionalized with the signing of the ASEAN-EEC Cooperation

Agreement on 7 March 1980. He emphasized that this study trip promoted the objectives of

this dialogue which enables interaction among members of civil societies and promotes

mutual understanding among them.

5.2 Austrian Consul to Indonesia

In absence of the Austrian Ambassador

to Indonesia, H.E. Klaus Wölfer (who

was still at duty-trip in Singapore at the

time of our arrival to Jakarta), Consul

Mr. Michael-Jan Swoboda welcomed the

participants of the BFA 2010 study trip

to Indonesia and Malaysia.

Mr. Swoboda, who has already been

assigned to this post for three years, gave

us a brief overview of the importance of

ASEAN in general and Indonesia in particular. He also stressed the relationship between

Austria and Indonesia in diplomatic as well as economic terms.

5.3 Spanish Ambassador to Indonesia

Date: Tuesday, 29th

June 2010

Time: 10:00 – 11:00

Topic: Relations between Austria and Indonesia

Speaker: Consul Mr. Michael-Jan Swoboda, Austrian Embassy to Indonesia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

Date: Tuesday, 29th

June 2010

Time: 11:00 – 12:00

Topic: The ASEAN Integration process and the EU–ASEAN relations

Speaker: H.E. Ambassador Aurora Bernández, Spanish Ambassador to Indonesia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

Austrian Consul, BFA participants and prof. Bajrektarevic 4

32

H.E. Ambassador Bernández

described ASEAN as a multi-

polar organization which has to

enforce new instruments in order

to guarantee a strongly

functioning ASEAN, being able

to compete with China and the

US. There are several possibilities

how to diminish the dominance of

China (ASEAN+3, ASEAN+6,

ASEAN+8). ASEAN pursues the

following priorities:

Independence, cooperation and

integration. It will be difficult to reach the full integration of ASEAN by 2015 since the

systems in particular countries are too different.

APEC is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and it was created in 1989. APEC very

much hopes that there will be no need to decide for the U.S. or China. China has a huge

power and might diminish the power of the U.S. immensely.

5.4 Director Deputy of the ASEAN Directorate, MFA of the Republic of Indonesia

Currently, the total population of ASEAN countries is 584 million with a GDP of 1,507

billion US dollars and a GDP per capita of 2,582 US dollars. The total volume of trade is

1,710 billion US dollars.

The establishment of the ASEAN Community is based on three main initiatives and pillars:

Date: Tuesday, 29th

June 2010

Time: 13:00 – 14:00

Topic: The ASEAN Community and its three pillars

Speaker: Mr. Sugeng Wahono, Deputy Director of the Directorate of ASEAN

Dialogue Partner and Inter-regional Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Republic of Indonesia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

Spanish Ambassador to Indonesia and ASEAN, Ms. Aurora Bernáldez &

prof. Anis Bajrektarevic, Diplomatic Academy of Indonesia, Jakarta 5

33

ASEAN Political Community tries to enhance peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in

the region with the help of the comprehensive political and security community.

ASEAN Economic Community sets such goals as the enhancement of competitiveness. The

economic growth and development is only possible through a very close economic

integration.

ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community focuses on the nurturing of human, cultural and natural

resources for sustained development in a harmonious and people-centered ASEAN.

The main principles of ASEAN are

to be the primary driving force in

regional arrangements that it

initiates and to maintain its

centrality in regional cooperation

and community-building. Further,

the strategic policy directions of

ASEAN’s external relations shall be

set by the ASEAN Summit upon the

recommendation of the ASEAN

Foreign Ministers Meeting.

Member states that act as

Country Coordinators shall take

the overall responsibility in

coordinating and promoting the

interests of ASEAN in its

relations with the relevant

Dialogue Partners, regional and

international organizations and

institutions.

They shall represent ASEAN and

enhance relations on the basis of

mutual respect and equality. All this shall happen in conformity with ASEAN’s principles.

Another role of the member states is to co-chair relevant meetings between ASEAN and

external partners. They shall be supported by the relevant ASEAN Committees in Third

Countries and International Organizations.

34

ASEAN’s main goals with regards to external relations are to gain technical support for the

regional cooperation-based projects, enhancement of trade and economic relations, as well as

the strengthening of socio-cultural and political security with the other countries and regional

groups.

ASEAN’s dialogue partners are Australia (1974), Canada (1977), China (1996),

South Korea (1991), Japan (1977), India (1995), Russia (1996), USA (1977), New Zealand

(1975), the European Union (1977) and the UNDP (1977). There is also one sectoral dialogue

Partner which is Pakistan.

ASEAN cooperates with other regional and international organizations such as the Gulf

Cooperation Council (GCC), Mercado Del Sur (MERCOSUR), the Economic Cooperation

Organization (ECO), the Rio Group and the South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation (SAARC). ASEAN has been an UN observer since 2006.

The ASEAN PLUS THREE consists of ASEAN + Japan, China and the Republic of Korea.

APT Cooperation began in December 1997 (the development of APT has a relation to the

Asian economic crisis in 1997/98). In terms of financial cooperation, the “Chiang Mai

Initiative Multilateralisation” Agreement was signed on 28 December 2008 and has been

effective since 24 March 2010. The multilateral financial support program provides financial

support through currency swap transactions to CMIM member countries facing balance of

payments and short-term liquidity difficulties.

The East Asia Summit (EAS) was established in Kuala Lumpur in 2005. The format of EAS

was a leaders-led summit for strategic discussions on key issues affecting the region and the

evolving regional architecture. Its aim was to enable discussions in a frank, spontaneous and

free-flowing manner.

ASEAN shall be the primary driving force in the process of the EAS.

The main areas of cooperation are education, disaster management, energy, environment,

finance and health. The participating countries of EAS are ASEAN + 3 (Japan, China, South

Korea), Australia, India and New Zealand.

ASEAN has initiated FTA negotiations with its dialogue partners. Australia and New Zealand

were included as well.

35

5.5 Director for ASEAN Political and Security Cooperation

Mr. Ade Padmo Sarwono presented the Political and

Security Cooperation within ASEAN. The Association of

Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on

8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of

the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the

Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia,

Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Brunei Darussalam then joined on 8 January 1984, Viet

Nam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July

1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is

today the ten Member States of ASEAN.

The main aims and purposes that were set in the ASEAN Declaration are:

To accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the

region in the spirit of equality and partnership.

To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the

rule of law in the relationship among countries.

To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest

in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields.

To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the

educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres.

To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilization of their agriculture and

industries, trade, the improvement of their transportation and communications

facilities.

Date: Tuesday, 29th

July 2010

Time: 14:00 – 15:00

Topic: Political and Security Cooperation within ASEAN

Speaker: Mr. Ade Padmo Sarwono, Director for ASEAN Political and Security

Cooperation, Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation, Ministry of

Foreign Affairs Republic of Indonesia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

36

To promote Southeast Asian studies and to maintain close and beneficial cooperation

with existing international and regional organizations with similar aims and purposes.

Fundamental principles of the ASEAN Member States in their relations with one another

were set in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) of 1976.

Mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and

national identity of all nations.

The right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference,

subversion or coercion.

Non-interference in the internal affairs of one another.

Settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful manner.

Renunciation of the threat or use of force and effective cooperation among

themselves.

ASEAN Charter

The ASEAN Charter serves as a firm foundation in achieving the ASEAN Community by

providing legal status and institutional framework for ASEAN. It also codifies ASEAN

norms, rules and values; sets clear targets for ASEAN; and presents accountability and

compliance.

ASEAN’s population

accounts for almost 580

million, a total area of

4.5 million square

kilometers, a combined

gross domestic product

of almost US$ 1,100

billion, and a total trade

of about US$ 1,400

billion. It follows its

trend towards unity and integration by adapting to its new motto: “One Vision, One Identity,

One Community.” It brings ASEAN to the people (people-centered organization). The

ASEAN Charter entered into force on 15 December 2008.

Indonesia’s prospective in ASEAN can be seen as:

37

As a Corner Stone;

As a collective force to sustain peace and stability in such a dynamic region and be

able to cope with the challenges and opportunities;

As an organization intended to intensified economic and development cooperation

including social and culture cooperation;

Achieving supports for domestic interest (border issues, extradition, recovery of the

proceeds of corruption, interfaith dialogue, etc)

Escalating Indonesia’s bargaining power collectively in various international forums

(UN, IMF, World Bank, etc)

5.6 Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation

Mr. Carnadi gave us a brief overview of the goals with

respect to the ASEAN as an economic community. It is

imperative to make sure that there will be a free flow of

goods and services. The following objectives have to be

achieved:

Elimination of tariff-barriers (100% IL in 2010);

Elimination of non-tariff barriers

Rules of origin (AFTA Council’s guideline: “adopt

rules that are liberal if not more liberal than the rules

in ASEAN FTAs”)

Date: Tuesday, 29th

July 2010

Time: 15:00 – 16:00

Topic: ASEAN Economic Community

Speaker: Mr. Benyamin Carnadi, Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Indonesia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

38

Trade Facilitation should happen through the Custom Integration,

Modernization of customs techniques (customs procedures, ASEAN customs transit

system, modernize classifications, HRD, e-customs, mutual assistance).

With regards to the free flow of services the following has to be achieved:

4 priority sectors (air transport, e-ASEAN, health care, and tourism)

Logistic services

Other services

Another important step is the free flow of investment that should be established as follows:

Finalization of the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA), which not

only focuses on the liberalization of investment but also other aspects namely:

protection, facilitation; promotion and awareness.

Indonesia has yet to submit its reservation list for ACIA, pending domestic/internal

consultation of its negative list (DNI).

Liberalization (08-09): Phase I, remove restrictions on investment (2008)

Facilitation (08-09): best practices for investment measures, publication, investment

opportunities for development of infrastructures in CLMV, FDI database, enhance

networking among ASEAN Investment Promotion Agencies, consultation with

businesses, and database on industrial clusters.

ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community

The ASEAN Socio-Cultural

Community (ASCC) was officially

adopted by the signing of Cha-Am

HuaHin Declaration on the

Roadmap for An ASEAN

Community (2009-2015) in

Thailand, 1 March 2009.

The primary goal of ASCC is to

contribute to realizing an ASEAN

Community that is people-oriented

and social responsible with a view to achieving enduring solidarity and unity among the

39

nations and people of ASEAN. Further, it should lift the quality of life of its peoples through

cooperative activities that are people-oriented and environmentally friendly geared towards

the promotion of sustainable development.

The main characteristics of ASCC are: the culture of regional resilience, adherence to agreed

principles, spirit of co-operation, collective responsibility, promote human and social

development, respect fundamental freedoms, gender equality, promote and protect human

rights, promote social justice.

With regards to human development it is imperative to provide an equitable access to human

development, promoting education, human resources training, encourage innovation and

entrepreneurship and promote English language.

Another issue is social welfare and protection. In this respect ASEAN is committed to

enhancing the well-being and the livelihood of the peoples of ASEAN through alleviating

poverty, ensuring social welfare and protection, building a safe, secure and drug free

environment, enhancing disaster resilience and addressing health development concerns.

Social Justice and Right are concerned as well. The main goals are: the promotion of the

social justice and mainstreaming people’s rights into its policies and all spheres of life,

including the rights and welfare of disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalized groups such

as women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities and migrant workers.

Further, it is crucial to ensure environmental stability by achieving sustainable development

as well as promoting clean and green environment and actively participate in dealing with

global environmental challenges.

An important step is also to build the ASEAN identity mainstream and promote greater

awareness and common values in the spirit

of unity in diversity at all level of society.

Strengthening the cooperation in order to

reduce the development gap in particular the

social dimensions of development between

the ASEAN-6 can do the narrowing of the

development gap. All speakers briefed the

whole group on ASEAN. Nonetheless, each

and everyone tried to provide a personal

view based on their own specialty. Speakers gave an opportunity to ask questions, which they

then answered, and a very fruitful discussion developed.

40

6 Wednesday, 30th

July 2010

All of us were very much looking forward to our second session day in Jakarta. It was a day

fully packed with exciting presentations and interesting personalities. It was great to hear how

the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, Kadin, works and to get further insight into ASEAN.

We were especially happy about meeting the young and dynamic students of the Diplomatic

Academy of Indonesia in order to exchange experiences and point of views with people of the

same age. It was a great opportunity to socialize and we really enjoyed networking. The day

definitely fulfilled our expectations and we made great friends during the course of the day.

6.1 Commercial Attaché, Chamber of Commerce of Austria

On our second session day we again were located in the

premises of the Indonesian Diplomatic Academy. The first

speaker of the day was Mag. Herwig Neuper, Commercial

Attaché from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, working in

the commercial section as a part of the Embassy as a kind of

Outsource of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO). This

office with two Delegates has been existing in Jakarta since

1960. Mag. Neuper’s main job is to give advice to Austrian

companies that do business in Indonesia and to convince

Austrian companies to come to South East Asia.

At the beginning Mag. Herwig Neuper as well as Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic both welcomed us

very warmly and gave an opening statement. Afterwards Mr. Ulreich started to moderate the

interactive dialogue. The main points we discussed were: job situation and working

conditions in Indonesia, setting up a business in Indonesia, investment climate and ecology of

the region. It was a lively discussion because all of us enjoyed the rather informal atmosphere,

which made it very interesting.

Date: Wednesday, 30th

June 2010

Time: 9:00 – 10:00

Topic: Doing Business in Indonesia and ASEAN

Speaker: Mag. Herwig Neuper, Commercial Attaché

Moderator: Erwin Ulreich (on behalf of Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic)

41

The answers Mag. Neuper gave us, were

very valuable. We learned that there can

occur diverse kinds of problems while setting

up a business in Indonesia. It is still a

developing country and everything in this

country works more slowly and most of the

things can be very time consuming: for

example the internet connection, the traffic

and the bureaucracy.

So far not a lot of Austrian businesses are represented in Indonesia but the few that do are

very successful, to name a few: Lenzing AG, Andritz Hydro, Böhler Welding Group, South

Pacific Viscose. Concerning the job conditions Mag. Herwig Neuper stated that Lenzing AG

is setting a great example: they employ 2000 workers and provide for instance a kindergarten

for their children and also a mosque, which indicates a very social attitude towards its

employees.

Generally Austrian businesses are working in the technical field since Indonesia has to catch

up in infrastructure and can exchange information and technology with its Austrian partners.

Furthermore, he gave us an insight in ecology where we learned that energy is the topic

number one. It is a quite sensitive issue since on the one hand the government is pushing coal

energy and on the other hand they are trying to promote and engage in renewable energy in

order to be able to reach the Kyoto Protocol requirements. Generally the willingness of the

government to change something exists but nevertheless the energy lobbies have a strong say.

The Indonesian government has to struggle with the collection of taxes – enterprises pay a

corporate tax of 26 % but the problem lies within the private Indonesians because 80 % of

them do not pay any tax.

Contact Information

Mag. Herwig Neuper

Der Stellvertretende Handelsdelegierte

für Indonesien

Außenhandelsstelle Jakarta

Austrian Embassy – Commercial Section

Menara Kadin, 19th Fl., Jl. HR Rasuna

Said, Blok X-5, Kav. 2 & 3

Jakarta 12950 – Indonesia

T: +62 21 2550 0186

F: +62 21 527 4707

E: Jakarta@wko.at

W: wko.at/awo/id

42

6.2 KADIN, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Indonesia

At the beginning Mr. Parsons introduced his young and

dynamic team, which consists of the members stated

above. Afterwards Ibad gave us a short introduction and

announced that every member will hold a short

presentation on a topic related to Kadin.

Kadin is the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and

consists of the Kadin President, 27 Vice Presidents, 746

Kadin board members and the Kadin Business Support

Desk (BSD).

Since all speakers are members of the BSD, they presented the main areas of the BSD, which

are Policy and Research, Market Assessments, Business Matching and Promotion and

Communication for Indonesia. Then they continued with describing the challenges of Kadin

like high responsibility, a big reform agenda, providing democracy for the high number of

provinces and tight cooperation with the government. Indonesia has to go through big reforms

and so Kadin has to be partner of this process. Furthermore, there are enormous requirements

in infrastructure and there is too much concentration of population on Java. It would be

important to also explore opportunities

outside of Java. Another challenge is to

combine self-interest (for example of

businesses) with the common interests

represented by the government.

Zita and Lucky discussed the physical

challenges, for instance the high diversity

in culture, religion and languages. In this

Date: Wednesday, 30th

June 2010

Time: 10:00 – 11:00

Topic: KADIN (Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry) – scope & work

Speaker: Mr. David Parsons, KADIN Head of Policy and Research and

the Kadin members (Ria, Lena, Gusti, Lucky, Zita, Dani and Ibad)

Moderator: Mr. Jan–Willem Blankert, EU Delegation Deputy Head

and Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

43

country you can find churches, mosques and temples next to each other. There are 300

languages out of which Bahasa Indonesia is the official language.

Afterwards, they provided us with some information about the geographical background and

we learned that Indonesia consists of 6000 islands and a population of 240 million and it is

still growing. The main island is Java, since 60% of people live there. Natural resources are

mainly pineapple, oil, gold, coal and gas. Indonesia is also very important when it comes to

producing palm oil.

Moreover, Kadin presented the priorities in order to foster growth: a stable macro-economy,

an independent investment climate, building up infrastructure and providing more services,

revitalizing the industries and regions and connecting international and domestic markets.

Afterwards Mr. Parsons asked each team member to talk about his or her personal main

priority. Gusti thinks that better cooperation with the government should be realized and for

Lena the main priorities are to build up a stronger competitive environment, to increase

investment in human capital and to decrease poverty. Dani would focus on communication,

especially in the SME-sector. Zita believes that SME’s are most important for employability

and growth. Lucky thinks that technology has to move forward in order to reach the goal of

being more competitive. His colleague Ibad wants the world to know about Indonesia’s

richness and would therefore promote the country more intensively. Ria strongly suggests

more cooperation with Japan and stresses the program “one village one product”, which was

established in cooperation with Japan. For Mr. Parsons the most important issue is education.

Later on the speakers deepened the topic of how to improve human capital development. Lena

told us that the government was aware of the problem and that programs had already been

designed. However, the main problem is that many rural areas cannot be reached by these

programs. Also the system itself faces major obstacles such as the lack of teachers and

equipment (i.e. computers and electricity). Mr. Parsons concluded that the primary and

secondary education sectors were already developed. However, tertiary education should be

further extended. The goal is to have good tertiary education in Indonesia in order encourage

young Indonesians to study in their own country instead of going abroad.

Contact Information

KADIN Business Support Desk

Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and

Industry

David Parsons

Policy & Research

Tel. +62 21 527 4503 ext. 102

HP. +62 812 1068 166

E-mail: david@parsons-asia.com

44

6.3 Business and Foreign Trade Briefing, Ministry of Trade of Indonesia

After the interactive dialogue with the young members of Kadin, we continued our session

day with a comprehensive presentation about the structures of ASEAN held by Mr. Bustami,

who also highlighted the following basic figures:

ASEAN land area: 4,435,830 km²

ASEAN GDP: $1.507 billion

EU GDP: $18.142 billion

US GDP: $14.265 billion

ASEAN has 10 member countries

(Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia,

Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,

Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and

Thailand) and is characterized by the

fact that its membership is binding but

does not replace national politics.

ASEAN has the potential to compete

globally – it is one of the most important global economies (each single national economy is

very small but in sum the countries have significant power). The ASEAN community relies

on implementing its three pillars: the ASEAN Security Community (ASC), the ASEAN

Economic Community (AEC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC).

ASEAN is taking shape in two dimensions:

Enlargement (time)

Deepening (agreements, charters, blueprints)

Date: Wednesday, 30th

June 2010

Time: 11:00 – 12:00

Topic: Business and Foreign Trade Briefing

Speaker: Mr. Gusmardi Bustami, Director General for International Trade, Ministry

of Trade of Indonesia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

Director-General of the Indonesian Ministry of Trade Mr. G.

Bustami and prof. Anis Bajrektarevic 6

45

ASEAN members try to concentrate on regional economic

growth, the reduction of poverty and the improvement of living

standards by adopting various agreements such as the Industrial

Project Plans (1976), Preferential Trading Agreement (PTA

1977), Industrial Complementation Scheme (1981) and the

Industrial Joint-Venture Scheme.

Furthermore, ASEAN tries to foster economic integration

through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme for

the ASEAN Free Trade Area (CEPT-AFTA), which was signed

in 1992. It is aimed at lowering, or better eliminating, tariff

barriers and non-tariff barriers among the member states.

Mr. Bustami also provided us with information about the building blocks for better economic

integration within ASEAN. These include the provision of training ground; having a more

stable macro-economy, more global integration, further development of institutions, reaching

higher growth rates and making investors perceive ASEAN as an export-platform to non-

ASEAN markets. Currently, twelve priority integration sectors have been selected: agro-based

products, air travel, the automotive industry, E-ASEAN, the electronic industry, fisheries,

healthcare, rubber-based products, logistic services, wood-based products, tourism, textiles

and apparels.

Concluding, the speaker stated that ASEAN was developing quickly and that it played an

increasingly important role for regional economic integration. Furthermore, he stated that the

implementation of the ASEAN Community 2015 could be a big challenge, because time was

short. The ASEAN states are aware of the challenge they are facing and some countries have

not yet fulfilled their commitments. This includes Indonesia. The speaker suggested that it

was important to evaluate why the implementation process was not successful in some of the

member countries. There should be room and time to talk about these problems, so that they

can be solved in due time.

Contact Information

Gusmardi Bustami

Director Jenderai Kerjasama Perdagangan

Internasional

Gedung Utami, Lantai 8

Jalan M.I. Ridwan Rais No. 5

Jakarta Pusat 110

Tel. +62 21 2352 8600 pes. 36200, 36900

Fax. +62 21 2352 8610

Email. djkpi@depdag.go.id,

gusmardi.bustami@depdag.go.id gusmardi.bustami@ties.itu.int

Web. www.depdag.go.id

www.ditjenkpi.depdag.go.id

46

6.4 Interactive Dialogue with Junior Diplomats, Diplomatic Academy

After the networking lunch with the Kadin members,

which provided us with the opportunity to get to

know some of them and to get a closer insight in their

work, we continued our session day with an

interactive dialogue with junior diplomats

of the Diplomatic Academy of Jakarta.

After Mr. Drajat, Director of The Junior Diplomatic

Training Course, had warmly welcomed the BFA

participants, he passed the word to his students. This

session provided us with the opportunity to exchange

ideas and thoughts with Indonesians of the same age. All

students mingled right away and started lively

conversations. The session also included a

comprehensive presentation about ASEAN.

The speaker, a young diplomat, addressed the Treaty of

Amity and Cooperation, which was signed in 1976 in

Indonesia and deals with the matters of sovereignty,

independence, equality and territorial integrity. He

shortly mentioned the ninth ASEAN Summit in Bali in

October 2003 and the eleventh ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005.

He also stressed that the vision of the ASEAN Community provided lot of opportunities to

Indonesia. Regional stability will support the development processes in Indonesia and

ASEAN will help to solve some of Indonesia’s problems.

Date: Wednesday, 30th

June 2010

Time: 13:00 – 14:00

Topic: Interactive Dialogue EU–ASEAN

Speaker: Junior Diplomats from the Indonesian Diplomatic Academy

Moderator: Mr. Ben Perkasa Drajat, Director of the JDTC and Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

47

The speech was followed by a Q&A session, which allowed us

to express our point of views and to go into detail in specific

areas. The BFA participants very much enjoyed and took this

chance to get a deeper insight into the some matters through

receiving answers from people of the same age and with similar

concerns and interests.

Since the presenter had mentioned the “proliferation of actors”

in his speech, the question was raised as to what exactly was

being done on that issue. Each question was elaborated by a

nominated junior diplomat. The answer was that there was a

general lack of understanding concerning ASEAN among the

majority of Indonesians and that in order to solve that problem ASEAN awareness was

promoted. This idea can be realized with the help of national and international exchanges,

projects and such programs as “ASEAN goes to school”. Furthermore, Indonesia will try to

not only involve the government but to be more people-centered.

Women’s rights within the ASEAN region constituted another point for discussion. The

junior diplomats stated that Indonesia was eager to improve women’s rights and child

protection and that there were more female leaders in South East Asia than in the US. The

Philippines have even had a female president. With concerns to gender-based discrimination,

Indonesia tries to eliminate patriarchy in order to achieve equality.

One of the BFA participants was particularly interested whether there were Indonesian

nationalist parties which were opposed to ASEAN. The junior diplomats explained that no

nationalist parties existed and that the country had not witnessed any general disagreement in

this regard.

Contact Information

Ben Perkasa Drajat

Director of the Junior Diplomatic

Training Course

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of

Indonesia

Main Building, 2nd

floor

73, Jl Sisingamangaraja

Jakarta Seletan 12120

Indonesia

Phone: 7250008-129, 3441508-8810,

7243752

Fax: (62-21) 7395746

Mobile: 081905223390

E-mail: bendrajat_1990@yahoo.com

48

6.5 Habibie Center

After having spent about two thirds of our day in the Indonesian Diplomatic Academy

Pusdiklat, we left for the Habibie Center to answer their kind courtesy call, where we also

received a very warm welcome. The session started with an introduction round of each of the

present Center’s members as well as Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic.

Intercultural academic exchanges, the formation of

international friendships and networking are in line

with the Habibie Center’s ideas – it is important to

learn from each other. In order to achieve this, various

projects have been implemented. The program

“Young Leaders Dialogue” was of particular interest

to the BFA participants. The project was conducted in

cooperation with Australia and Taiwan. It is about

young leaders from different countries who meet in

order to exchange their ideas and views.

ASEAN is new, but becoming more relevant to the

member countries as well as to outsiders. This is

why it is important that ASEAN members and other countries are well informed. It was

mentioned by the speakers that the EU could learn from ASEAN and vice versa. One of the

speakers elaborated on the differences and similarities between ASEAN and the EU. The

BFA participants were informed that there was an EU fund which supported research on trade

barriers between these two organizations.

ASEAN and EU integration differ from each other. While the EU continually accepts new

member countries, ASEAN has not managed to fully integrate yet.

Date: Wednesday, 30th

June 2010

Time: 15:30 – 17:30

Topic: Interactive dialogue

Speaker: Ms. Rahimah Abdulrahim, Dean Yulindra Affandi, Dr. Fuad Rasyid

Moderator: Prof. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Associate Director for Research and Prof. Anis

Ms. Dr. Ima (Rahimah), welcoming participants 7

49

Indonesia’s domestic barriers include such issues as weak export promotion, technical barriers

and the domination of SME’s with a low level of competitiveness. Indonesia’s trade

comprises only 27 per cent of exports (GDP ratio), which is low when compared to other

ASEAN countries.

Ms. Rahimah Abdulrahim mentioned some key challenges including that the capacity

building priorities should be directed to farmers. Additionally, promoting awareness is not an

easy task to accomplish. Practical exchanges on how to mitigate the possible negative effects

of economic integration are also considered very important.

There are different levels of integration, whereby the first level is always economic

integration. The second stage of integration again includes different levels (i.e. the level of

democracy). ASEAN is characterized by big differences, for instance, in the levels of

democracy, spanning from communism to democracy. It is aimed to have closed this gap by

2015. Research is currently very much focused on political matters and not on culture at all.

This constitutes a problem and there needs to be more communication between the different

members. ASEAN needs to be preserved to make progress.

AICHR (ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights) has the task to promote,

not to protect human rights. Although sometimes portrayed as a “toothless tiger”, since it does

not apply any mechanism or measures in case of HR violations, this body is considered to be

a milestone, norm setting entity.

Contact Information

Rahimah Abdulrahim

Program I& Public Relations Manager

The Habibie Center Building

Jl. Kemang Selatan No. 98 – Jakarta 12560 –

Indonesia

Dean Yulindra Affandi

ASEAN Study Program Coordinator

The Habibie Center Building

Jl. Kemang Selatan No. 98 – Jakarta 12560 –

Indonesia

Dr. Ir. Fuad Rasyid, MSc

Director For Administrative Affairs

The Habibie Center Building

Jl. Kemang Selatan No. 98 – Jakarta 12560 –

Indonesia

Phone: (62-21) 7817211 – Fax: (62-21)

7817212

E-mail: ima@habibiecenter.co.id –

imaabdul@gmail.com

URL: http://www.habibiecenter.or.id

Phone: (62-21) 7817211 – Fax: (62-21)

7817212

E-mail: daffandi@habibiecenter.co.id –

imaabdul@gmail.com

URL: http://www.habibiecenter.or.id

Phone: (62-21) 7817211 – Fax: (62-21)

7817212

E-mail: fuadi@habibiecenter.or.id

URL: http://www.habibiecenter.or.id

50

6.6 Jakarta Cultural Center – Get-together with Artists and Young Diplomats

Back-stage group photo, BFA participants Junior Diplomats and actors 8

Date: Wednesday, 30th

June 2010

Time: 19:30 – 23:00 (Get-together with the Indonesian MFA Young Diplomats)

Topic: Sapu di Tangan, Theatrical Play

Jakarta Cultural Center – Gedung Kesenian Jakarta

21.45-22.30 Theatrical Play, followed by the Back-stage meeting and talks with the

theatre actors, group photo & join gig-performance

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

51

7. Thursday, 1st July 2010

Our 3rd

session day was located at the ASEAN Secretariat. We were warmly welcomed by the

ASEAN Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Misran Karmain, Senior Experts of the Secretariat

and other ASEAN staff member. After the short introduction given by prof. Anis

Bajrektarevic, the welcome notes were delivered by the Deputy Secretary General, followed

the Ambassador Julian Wilson, EU Delegation Head and Austrian Ambassador Dr. Klaus

Wölfer. Second morning session was addressed by the senior experts of the ASEAN

Secretariat Mr. Alexandar A. Lim, Head of Science and Technology Division, Nguyen Son

Ngoc, External Relations Divison.

7.1 ASEAN Briefings, the EU Delegation Head and Austrian Ambassador to Indonesia

In general, the ASEAN Economic

Community is a natural progression

towards the next level of economic

integration as ASEAN matures and

needs a comprehensive strategy to

upgrade its competitiveness.

Date: Thursday, 1st July 2010

Time: 9:00 – 10:30

Topic: Horizontalization of the EU and ASEAN ideas,

Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic, BFA Developer and Coordinator

Topic: Welcome note, H.E. Misran Karmain, Deputy Secretary General (on behalf of

Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the ASEAN Secretary General)

Topic: Welcome note and Tour de Table with

H.E. Amb. Julian Wilson, The EU Delegation Head and

H.E. Dr. Klaus Wölfer, Austrian Ambassador to Indonesia

Time: 10.30 – 12.30

Topic: Speed dating – ASEAN Economic Community briefings (Economy, trade, FDI, telecommunication, energy, environment, political cooperation

within the ASEAN, ASEAN+3+3, EU–ASEAN, ASEAN and the world)

Moderator: Mr. Jan–Willem Blankert, EU Delegation Deputy Head

and Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

Group photo at the ASEAN HQ, BFA participants, H.E. Deputy

Sec-General, Amb. Wilson, Amb. Wölfer and prof. Anis

Bajrektarevic, Jakarta 01 JUL 2010 9

52

The rise of China, India and other emerging economies underscores the importance of

creating a stronger, more united and cohesive ASEAN.

The path towards an ASEAN Economic Community is regulated by the AEC Blueprint which

is a strategic plan for the short to medium-term towards 2015. It includes key milestones for a

comprehensive and deeper economic integration by 2015.

There exist regional guidelines on competition policies and a Handbook on Competition and

Law in ASEAN for Businesses. Four ASEAN member states have national competition laws:

Singapore Competition Act, Thailand Competition Act, Viet Nam Competition Law, and

Indonesia Law No. 5.

Concerning Intellectual Property Rights, the ASEAN IPR Action Plan 2004-2010 and the

Work Plan for ASEAN Cooperation on Copyrights are being implemented.

Another point is to improve connectivity in which the Maritime Transport Services adopts the

roadmap towards an Integrated and Competitive

Maritime Transport in ASEAN. In the Air Freight

Service section ASEAN decided on the Multilateral

Agreement on the Full Liberalization of Air Freight

Services and the Multilateral Agreement on Air

Services.

The aim is to connect both physical and institutional

infrastructure, to enhance information and

communication technology and to promote people-to-

people exchange.

The speaker mentioned the challenges for AEC 2015.

ASEAN needs to strengthen resilience to future shocks

and enhance competitiveness. The ongoing vertical

integration of production networks and processes

across borders highlights the importance for ASEAN to enhance the progress in regional

integration. In the starting phase, regional integration can create short-term adjustment costs,

however, in the longer term these costs should be more than offset by the benefits generated

by well-targeted reforms. All in all, the key to the community is timely implementation.

After this very interesting presentation we had a very fruitful question-and-answer-round.

In general the EU considers ASEAN to be very important. What are the reasons?

EU Delegation Head, Amb. J. Wilson,

addressing the BFA participants 10

53

Mr. Julian Wilson: Regarding

international initiatives, ASEAN and

the EU are the two most serious

integrations in the world. Moreover,

the ASEAN Charter is developing in

the same way as the European

Union. ASEAN leads to political

stability. Therefore, ASEAN is a

good business partner. The reason

why the EU considers ASEAN to be

so important is to build a good

relationship. The future will show in

which direction ASEAN will develop, however, ASEAN and the EU are culturally close and

have shared values, meaning that both should be treated equally.

What is the current economic situation in Singapore in an international context?

H.E. Klaus Wölfer: First of all, Singapore is characterized by sustainable trade and fulfilled

major investments, whereas the trend in the EU shows that trade is not increasing.

Mr. Julian Wilson (comment): Besides that, Asia will be the principle owner of globalization,

meaning that it is ready to invest. As a result, the network of FTAs will increase and other

Asian countries, such as Korea, will follow.

What about the climate issue? Does ASEAN care about the environment and climate change?

H.E. Klaus Wölfer: The reason why Asia is not so much interested in the climate issue is that

when considering the level of poverty, one needs to invest in more urgent issues.

Why should ASEAN care about the EU and Austria?

Mr. Julian Wilson: Because it is about mutual exchange in geopolitical terms and trans-

regional exchange. Another fact is that ASEAN and the EU can be important partners, if they

deepen their relations.

After the lively dialogue between the speakers and BFA participants the session was closed

and the group departed on a spontaneous sightseeing tour of Jakarta.

Ambassador Dr. Klaus Wölfer addressing participants 11

54

7.2 Sightseeing in Jakarta, Indonesia’s National Monument and Masjid Istiqlal

It was a 10-minute bus ride to Indonesia’s National Monument which is also called “Monas”.

The National Monument is a tower of 422 feet. It is situated in the center of Merdeka Square,

Central Jakarta, and symbolizes the fight for Indonesia's independence. Its construction began

in 1961 under the direction of President Sukarno and the monument was opened to the public

in 1975. It is topped by a flame which is covered with gold foil.

Unfortunately we did not enter it, because of the long queue

at the entrance. We decided to take a ‘family picture’ and

returned to the bus.

Our next stop was “Masjid Istiqlal” which is the largest

mosque in Southeast Asia in terms of its capacity to

accommodate people. The national mosque of Indonesia

was built to commemorate Indonesian independence, as the

nation's gratitude for God's blessings and the independence

of Indonesia. Hence, the national mosque of Indonesia was

named “Istiqlal”, the Arabic word for “Independence”.

7.3 Reception at the Residence of the Austrian Ambassador H.E. Klaus Wölfer

Date: Thursday, 1st July 2010

Time: 15:00 -17:30

Topic: Sightseeing: Indonesia’s National Monument and Masjid Istiqlal

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

Date: Thursday, 1st July 2010

Time: 18:00 h – 22:00

Topic: Joint Networking buffet

Ambassador call by H.E. Klaus Wölfer

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

55

At 6 pm we were warmly welcomed by H.E. Klaus Wölfer and his wife at their

residence. The reception started with a welcome speech in the backyard. The BFA

participants expressed their gratefulness with a little present. The impressing

performance of two Indonesian dancers was certainly one of the highlights of the

evening. The performance showed a traditional dance, which Indonesian couples

used to dance when both families agreed to their marriage. The evening reception

was a perfect setting to exchange views with Embassy members, Indonesian,

ASEAN and EU Delegation speakers as well as the representatives of national media

who were present at the Ambassador’s residence.

Contact Information

Association of Southeast Asian Nation

Retno Astrini

Technical Officer

Security Cooperation Division

Political & Security Directorate

ASEAN Political & Security Community

Department

Jan-Willem Blankert

Special Adviser ASEAN

Delegation of the European Union to

Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam

Intiland Tower, 16th Floor, Jl. Jend.

Sudirman 32, Jakarta 10220

Tel: +62 21 726 2991 Ext. 426

Fax: +62 21 739 8234, 724 3504

Email: retno.astrini@asean.org

Tel: (62 21) 2554 6208 HP:

08118000475 Fax: (62 21) 2554 6201

e-mail: jan-

willem.blankert@ec.europa.eu

http://www.delidn.ec.europa.eu

Mrs. And Mr. Ambassador Klaus Wölfer, Embassy team, BFA participants and media 12

56

Date: Saturday, July 3th

2010

Time: 09:00 – 17:00

Topic: Excursion to the National Museum and Taman Mini

Speaker: Mr. Ranjid(tour guide)

Moderator: Mr. Ranjid

7 Saturday, 3rd July 2010

7.1 Excursion to the National Museum and Taman Mini

Just like every morning, we woke up

very early and hopped onto the bus.

After the last days of embassy visits and

seminars, this day was entirely devoted

to cultural activities. The first part of

the day included a visit to the “Museum

National Jakarta”. The museum is

located in Lapangan Merdeka and it

was built in 1778 by the Dutch. The

museum was beautiful and we learned a

lot.

The museum is well known among Indonesians, especially among Jakarta’s residents. It is

also known as the “Elephant House” or “Elephant Museum” because of the statue of a bronze

elephant which is situated in front of the museum and which was a gift from King

Chulalongkorn from Thailand who

visited the museum in 1871.

Unfortunately, we did not have enough

time to see the whole museum, but we

saw several highlights.

What was very impressive was the

huge map of Indonesia on a big tablet.

The islands, mountains and volcanoes

were clearly elevated and got a very

good idea of Indonesia’s topography.

57

Behind each item there was a very interesting story to be told. We all enjoyed listening to

stories about romance, brave warriors and ghost puppets, as well as to myths and legends.

Our tour guide was a young woman with a broad and detailed knowledge of her country. Her

enthusiasm for her country was very impressive.

The treasure room was very beautiful, especially the gold room. The museum also has a

bronze collection, a stone sculpture collection, a ceramic collection and not to forget the old

fossils, bones and skulls we were able to admire.

The most interesting fact about the museum is how different it is. It informs about historical

aspects of so many different Asian countries, reaching from the far western Arabian Peninsula

to the far east of Japan. No matter if it is of Arabian Muslim or Asian Buddhist origin, you

can differentiate everything you see in the museum – and this is remarkable.

Hence, we enjoyed a short but very enjoyable visit to the Museum National Jakarta.

Afterwards the group headed to Taman Mini, the second part of today’s program.

Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) literally translated to English means “Beautiful

Indonesian Miniature Park”. In its essence it is a recreational area which is entirely devoted to

culture. It shows the richness and cultural plurality of Indonesia.

Taman Mini displays the different characteristics of the Indonesian environment with its

diverse landscapes. It occupies an area of roughly 250 acres.

The idea to build a small-scale Indonesia goes back to the former first lady of Indonesia, Siti

Hartinah and was publicly presented at a convention in 1970. Two years later, in 1972, the

Harapan Kita Foundation started the “Indonesian Miniature Project”.

The park depicts all aspects of

daily life in the Indonesian

provinces, whereby one pavilion

is devoted to each province. Due

to the fact that the number of

provinces in Indonesia has

changed from 26 to 33, new

pavilions are under construction.

Furthermore, in 2000,

Indonesian-Chinese culture was

recognized as an integral part of

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Indonesian culture. Thus, one pavilion is entirely devoted to this aspect and includes a

Confucian temple. In 1975, after the secession of East Timor from Indonesia, the status of the

East Timor pavilion was changed to “Museum of East Timor”.

Each pavilion features traditional houses with different regional architectural styles. Each

pavilion exhibits a minimum of three typical houses. Whereby these traditional houses are

usually recreated, in case of the Cut Meutia house which pertains to the Nanggroe Aceh

Darussalam, the original house was taken and relocated to the park.

It is said that visiting the pavilions is like traveling around the different provinces of

Indonesia, because each pavilion shows the traditional customs, art, instruments, historic

relics, handicraft and other culturally relevant objects. Taman Mini also provides information

about the various ethnic groups and the differences in lifestyles.

Parts of TMII

In addition to the pavilions which represent the Indonesian provinces, the park includes

religious buildings, gardens, museums, theatres, monuments, halls and recreational facilities.

In total the TMII comprises 14 museums: PurmaBhakti Pertiwi Museum, Soldier Museum,

Indonesian stamps Museum, Pusaka Museum, Transportation Museum, Electricity & New

Energy Museum, Telecommunication Museum, Penerangan Museum, Sports Museum, Asmat

Museum, Komodo Zoological Museum and Reptile Park, Insects Museum, Research &

Technology Information Center, Oil & Gas Museum, East Timor Museum and finally the

Indonesia Museum.

Before the cable car and the exploration of the pavilions, the group enjoyed a visit to the

Indonesia Museum. The latter has three floors and refers back to the philosophy “tri

hitakarana” which explains the three sources of happiness of human beings: the relationship

with the Almighty, the relationship with fellow human beings and the relationship with the

natural environment.

The theme of the first floor is called “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”. It presents the different

traditional wedding costumes which are typical of the different regions.

“Man and the environment” is the theme of the second floor, where cultural objects from the

surrounding environment are exhibited.

The exhibition on the third floor carries the theme “Art and skill”. It presents products of

applied and newly created art. Amongst others, clothes, woven products and batik can be

found here. It also shows a variety of artworks made of silver, brass and copper. Furthermore,

59

the art of wood carving in Jepara style, Balinese style, Toraja style and Asmat style is

exhibited. Also the “tree of life” as a symbol of the universe containing the elements of air,

water, wind, land and fire is situated on this floor.

Along with the museums, the park also accommodates three theatres: KeongEmasImax

Theater, TanahAirku Theater and the 4D Theater.

Moreover, a great number of monuments, halls and other exhibits can be found in the park,

including the APEC Memorial Monument, the Flower clock and the Cokot Sculpture, which

is a display of wooden sculptures by the famous Balinese artist Cokot.

Getting around in TMII

There are a number of possibilities to move around the park, including the Skylift Indonesia

cable car, the Aeromovil Indonesia, which is a wind-powered monorail, and the Mini train.

We all took a ride on the cable car

and enjoyed the nice view.

We also spent some time walking

around Taman Mini and got back

late at night due to traffic jams – as

usual. Nevertheless, we had a very

memorable day and discovered a lot

about the country.

Taman Mini, from a cable-car 13

60

Date: Monday, 5th

July 2010

Time: 09:00 – 17:00

Topic: Trip to the Pelegong home stay + short bus tour in Kuala Lumpur

Speaker: Mr. Ranjid(tour guide)

Moderator: Mr. Ranjid

8 Monday, 5th July 2010

8.1 Trip to Pelegong home stay and Kuala Lumpur City Tour

On July 5th

, the students participating in the BFA trip to Asia finally had the chance to explore

Malaysia’s capital city – Kuala Lumpur. At 9 am the utterly friendly tour guide Ranjid

welcomed the group in the hotel lobby and told the students to board the bus where they

received a detailed introduction to both Malaysia and its capital.

Information on Malaysia

The island of Borneo, which is shared with Indonesia, is of vital importance for the Malayan

petroleum industry.

The territory of Malaysia comprises approximately 340.000 square kilometers. The

population is approximately 28 million. The three main ethnic groups are Chinese, Indian and

Malayan. Malaysia’s capital city is legally seen as a federal territory. The population – not

including the agglomeration – is approximately two million people.

61

Education has been gaining tremendously in importance in Malaysia and young people are

going to different countries in order to acquire good education. Among the popular

destinations are Great Britain (relevant for Law Studies) and India (relevant for Medical

Studies). Russia and Australia have been receiving more and more Malayan students too.

Malaysia is a country which has been barely affected by the economic crisis. The annual GDP

growth is between five and six per cent and the unemployment rate is among the lowest in the

region. The most important exporting goods are rubber and palm oil.

Agenda for the day

The group went on a bus trip to a home

stay called Pelegong which was located

two hours south of Kuala Lumpur. The

bus did not go all the way and the students

were picked up by locals of Pelegong who

took them to the home stay.

The group was given a warm welcome

with traditional music. Four people played

typical Malayan instruments and the

students shook hands with the inhabitants.

First of all, the BFA participants were

informed about the upcoming

activities. The following short get-

together with the inhabitants of the home stay enabled the group to become familiar with the

traditions, habits and customs of the locals while enjoying a cup of black tea, vegetarian

spring rolls and fried banana danish.

The first activity was the preparation of a Malayan rice dish called “Lemang”. This dish is

prepared as follows: take a piece of bamboo and put a rolled banana leaf into the bamboo.

Then pour a mixture of rice and coconut milk into the banana leaf. Afterwards the “Lemang”

is placed near an open fire for three to four hours.

Home-stay in Malaysia, welcome for the BFA participants 14

62

Apart from “Lemang” the students also learned to

make small biscuits made from eggs, sugar and

flour. These little biscuits are called “Bahulu”.

As the students were traveling during the

harvesting season, they could try different fruit,

including rambutans, mangostane and the

notorious durian. The latter is well-known for its

sulfur-like odor.

The BFA participants engaged in conversations

with locals and the atmosphere was very nice.

Despite the language differences the students

were very much enjoying themselves with the

locals.

For lunch, a buffet of traditional home-made

Malayan food was served. It comprised fish with

chili paste and yellow curry with chicken and

coconut milk. This was also the time when the

students were able to taste the “Lemang” which they had made.

Lunch was followed by a short handicraft course during which each student made a little

basket. The students were very much enjoying this relaxing activity.

The closing ceremony was the last event of the visit to the home stay. Gifts were distributed

to the students and each participant of signed the guest book of Pelegong.

City Tour

The National Palace of Malaysia was the first stop of the city tour. The National Palace is the

official residence of His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginan Yan di-Pertuan Agong and Her

Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Raja Permaisuri Agong. Nestled within an area of 11.34

hectares, the palace is serenely enveloped in stunning gardens with a vibrant assortment of

beautiful trees and plants.

Malaysia comprises 13 states out of which 9 are ruled by Sultans and 4 by Chief Ministers.

The sultans gather every 4 years and elect the king. The latter, after he steps down, again

becomes a Sultan in his region of origin.

Home-stay, and cooking together 15

63

The king is only a representative figure. He has no power except that of over the military.

Furthermore, he is the head of Islamic Law (non-Muslims have to follow Civil Law).

In Malaysia, only the Prime Minister is responsible for policy-making. This is why the latter

is at the same time the advisor to the king.

These are the main characteristics that emphasize the Malayan Constitutional Monarchy.

World War II Memorial

Due to Malaysia’s relevance in WW II as a site for various battles, a memorial was erected in

remembrance of those soldiers who could not be identified (ibid.).

The BFA participants experienced Malaysia as a safe and multicultural country with an

amazing cultural heritage and surroundings. Kuala Lumpur is a modern, clean and dynamic

city which carries the nickname “The Garden City of Lights” due to the lit areas at night.

Kuala Lumpur is considered to be a safe city and will definitely remain in the students’

memories for a very long time.

KL city tour and city monuments 16

64

Tuesday, July 6th

2010

Our group had the great pleasure to be warmly welcomed at the Institute of Diplomacy and

Foreign Relations, also known as IDFR. The venues of the IDFR hosted us also for the

upcoming BFA session days. We were given very informative speeches, briefings,

discussions over the course of our three days on the premises, which we are very thankful for.

On our first day we were visited by the Austrian Ambassador to Malaysia H.E. Andrea

Wicke, the Malaysian Ambassador H.E. Abdullah Faiz Zain, who is also Senior Director of

the IDFR, Mr. Alessandro Paolicchi, Head of the Trade & Economic Section at the EU

Delegation to Malaysia, and Dr. Franz Schröder, Austrian Trade Commissioner to Malaysia

and Brunei. Furthermore our group visited the Malaysia External Trade Development

Corporation MATRADE, and in the evening we got an invitation to a very nice barbecue at

the IDFR, where we enjoyed the networking possibilities with all the speakers and the IDFR

master students.

8.2 Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR)

In the very impressive and historically rich “Treaty Room” – where a lot of significant treaties

like the Declaration of Independence of the Federation of Malaysia in 1957 were signed in the

past – we had the opportunity to get to know H.E. Andrea Wicke, former Austrian

Ambassador to Lithuania and now to Malaysia, and H.E. Ambassador Abdullah Faiz Zain,

who is also the senior director of the IDFR.

Date: Tuesday, July 6th

2010

Time: 10:00 – 13:00

Topic: Welcoming speech & introduction to the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign

Relations, Personal views and experiences of the speakers in Malaysia, Tour

de Table: Introduction of participants

Speaker: H.E. Ambassador Abdullah Faiz Zain, Senior Director of IDFR

H.E. Ambassador Andrea Wicke, Ambassador of Austria to Malaysia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

65

The first speaker of the day

was H.E. Faiz. In his opening

remarks he stated that he was

honored to host us – the

Austrian ‘Business Focus

ASEAN 2010’ delegation. He

mentioned that it is very

important in order to

understand the functioning of

Malaysia to get a deep

understanding of the culture

and an insight into the

country, which has now been

independent for more than 50

years. H.E. Faiz called

Malaysia a “country in a hurry” due to the fact that it lacks 200 years of development as they

have not been part of the Industrialization age. But furthermore he indicated that his country

is now very present on the world screen, as it is one of the most developed developing

countries. Malaysia is business-friendly, has a good infrastructure, and is “truly Asian”.

The interesting, refreshing speech of H.E. Abdullah Faiz Zain was followed by an insightful

speech of H.E. Wicke, who underlined what was said before and added that for her especially

the coming together is one of the most important things for networking and doing business

successfully in Asia. For the European countries it is important to outreach to South-East

Asia, as it has a lot of development potential. In her opinion, Malaysia is particularly unique,

as three peoples (Malays, Chinese and Indians), as well as the Orang-asli (the indigenous

people of Malaysia) live peacefully together.

The history of the diplomatic relations between Austria and Malaysia reaches back to the

60’s, which means Ambassadors were dispatched to each country. In 1973, embassies in

Austria and Malaysia where established respectively, and in 1976 the first commercial office

was opened. H.E. Wicke emphasized that the relationships between the two countries have

always been very solid, friendly and excellent. The first state visit of Malaysia to Austria took

place in 1992 when Raja Azlan Sha (king of Malaysia) visited our beautiful country.

Currently Her Excellency is eager to arrange a high ranking Austrian state visit to Malaysia.

The purpose of such visits and exchanges of cultures is to strengthen the relationship between

countries, and with the help of the EU framework the representation of Austria really

succeeded in doing this within the last years. A further important step when it comes to

The official opening of the Malaysian part of the BFA, Historic Treaty Room of

the IDFR, Kuala Lumpur – Amb. Wicke, Amb. Faiz, prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

and the BFA participants 17

66

nurturing relations is to organize exhibitions, festivals and balls (e.g. the Viennese ball) to

present the Austrian culture not only to Malaysia, but to make the country known throughout

the world. Excellency Wicke also highlighted the advantages that the EU brings to small

countries concerning the increased visibility and that through the Lisbon treaty there is now

an own body called the ‘Common Foreign Service’ that is in charge of the representation of

the whole Union. Ambassador Wicke explained us that the individual trade is still in the

hands of the national services, but there is a common trade framework which should be the

starting point to get a common foreign policy (meaning also FTAs with Malaysia) and create

a better understanding among each other.

With the end of the welcome notes, the BFA participants had the chance to introduce

themselves in a Tour de Table, to give our hosts an idea of our studies and personalities. Next,

we were shown a video and presentation about the IDFR to get more information about the

institute and its facilities.

The Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR), was established in 1991 under the

Prime Minister’s Department following a Cabinet decision in March 1991. It was officially

launched the same year on 12

August by the Prime Minister Dato’

Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. In

2004 the IDFR officially became

part of the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs of Malaysia. Located in the

heart of South East Asia, Kuala

Lumpur, IDFR is housed in the

former building of the Foreign

Ministry. Its new campus was

opened in 2006.

IDFR was set up with the primary aim of providing formal basic, mid-career and higher level

training to Malaysian Foreign Service officers. As the Ministry's training arm, IDFR conducts

training programmes for Malaysian diplomatic officers as well as officers from other

government ministries and agencies. Apart from the main diplomatic training courses, IDFR

provides mid-career and follow up professional skills training to help enhance the

professionalism of serving officers. In collaboration with the National University of Malaysia

(UKM), IDFR offers a thirteen month postgraduate programme for a Master of Social Science

in Strategy and Diplomacy. The training programmes are practitioner-oriented and are aimed

at equipping officers with the skills and knowledge to meet the challenges they face in the

IDFR’s Senior Director, Amb. Faiz – our principal host 18

67

conduct of their professional duties. The Institute provides training in two broad areas –

diplomacy and foreign relations, as well as foreign languages. IDFR training courses are

offered to more than 136 countries worldwide, in particular to participants from the

developing countries or from ASEAN. The high quality seminars, but also lectures of

prominent speakers guarantee a proper education and networking possibilities. Prominent

speakers under IDFR's Public Lecture Series have included Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela,

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the late Benazir Bhutto and the late Yasser Arafat – just to name a

few.

IDFR’s campus has a lot of facilities, for example a fully-equipped library complete with self-

access learning resources, a new auditorium which can accommodate up to 250 people, a

prayer room capable of holding 100 people, a VIP waiting room, a gallery, several meeting

rooms including the famous Treaty Room with a maximum capacity of 50 people, fully-

equipped language labs, training or lecture rooms equipped with built-in whiteboards and

projectors, a dining hall, 60 hostel rooms of international standard (inclusive of ten suites), a

500-person multipurpose hall, gymnasiums, badminton and squash courts, an outdoor tennis

court and an outdoor swimming pool.

After the very

insightful presentation,

H.E. Andrea Wicke

started to tell us about

her personal

experiences in

Malaysia, which was

also very interesting

for us, as some might

consider doing their

practical training

semester in Kuala

Lumpur. Ambassador

underlined the

friendliness, openness

and hospitality of the citizens and she thinks that the main reason and secret for success in this

region is that the people live peacefully with each other. Malaysia had lot of problems in the

60’s but they learned from it and see their future like a marriage and a working progress. The

economic success is stable at the moment and so they can better cope with their different

races – like for example the Swiss people do it. Malaysia tries its best to keep a good balance

Austrian Ambassador Ms Andrea Wicke, IDFR Senior Director Amb. Faiz and BFA

participants 19

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and peace within the country. The citizens do not want to live beside each other, and the

Malaysian program promotes the “living together” and the communication among each other.

H.E. Faiz Zain explained that in Malaysia you can find about 50% Malays, 30% Chinese and

15% Indians. He highlighted that Kuala Lumpur was actually a little village in the past, but it

turned out to be the number one producer for rubber, and through the economic success,

everybody prospers and the communication between the different cultures improves. Still, he

mentioned that it was not always easy for Malaysia to host different cultures without

difficulties.

Contact Information

Ambassador Abdullah Faiz Zain, Senior

Director

Institute of Diplomacy & Foreign

Relations

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Jalan Wisma Putra

50460 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Ambassador Andrea Wicke

Austrian Embassy

Wisma Goldhill

Suite 10.01-02, Level 10

67, Jalan Raja Chulan

50200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel.: + (603) 2149 1102

Fax.: + (603) 2144 9197

E-mail: faiz@idfr.gov.my

URL. www.idfr.gov.my

Tel. : 03-20570020

Fax.: 03-23817768

E-mail: kualalumpur@bmeia.gv.at

69

8.3 Intercultural essentials in Thailand, Burma and Laos

After the coffee break a less business oriented presentation was on

our agenda. Ms. Busarin Lertchavalitsakul, who holds a Master

degree in Sustainable Development of the Faculty of Social

Sciences on the Chiang Mai University in Thailand was so kind as

to give a talk on the cultural differences between Thailand, Burma

and Laos. During her presentation she also tried to familiarize us

with these beautiful countries.

First of all, Ms. Lertchavalitsakul made clear that whenever

looking at culture in general and cultural differences in particular

one needs to differentiate between the structure of a country’s culture (the full range of

learned human behavior patterns) and individuals (behavior patterns that are developed by

individuals and diverge from the common patterns). Out of that reason, everyone who is

interested in the culture of a country must study both, the society as a whole–the macro

image–and individuals–the micro image. A particularly vital point is not to stereotype

anybody just for his or her origin.

Thailand

Thailand is often referred to as the “Land of Smiles” that highlights the happy, friendly and

open-minded attitude of the Thai people. However, the Thai society is highly hierarchically

arranged. A patron-client relationship is commonly found in this country. There has always

been a class system in Thailand. A particularly important aspect of Thai culture is the point of

view towards seniority and status. It is of utmost importance to belong to the right class in

order to count. Personal connections do matter a lot when it comes to business in Thailand.

Recently, there has been an advent of middle-class in Thailand. By the time being this class

has emerged and developed to the dominant societal group. Furthermore, Thailand is also

Date: Tuesday, July 6th

2010

Time: 14:00 – 15:00

Topic: Intercultural essentials in Thailand, Burma and Laos

Speaker: Mag. Busarin Lertchavalitsakul, Thailand

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

70

coined by the mixture of many different groups of people, including foreigners came to the

country through international trade, tourism and inter-cultural marriages. In the 21st century,

tradition has become a little more flexible. Thailand is more modernized and westernized

today; however, this modernization and westernization must fit into the Thai style.

Burma

Burma the “Golden Land”, the “Land of Pagodas” was in former times colonized by the

British. It gained independence in 1948. The following years free elections were held in order

to guarantee democracy. Unfortunately, everything ended with the coup in 1962, from that

time on Burma has been run by a Junta government that enforces military rule. This

governmental form can simply be called a dictatorship. Even though Burma is a dictatorship it

is an economically important country due to the fact that Burma is the world’s major rice

exporter and a tourism region that is getting more important to contribute to Burma’s national

income.

Laos

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic was colonized by France under the label of France

Indochina (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) in the late 19th

century. Today, Laos depicts a

buffer zone in-between the capitalistic Thailand and the communist China and Vietnam.

The main export crop for Laos is rice, but also coffee (Dow coffee), beer (Lao Beer) and other

national products. In the last couple of years, Laos became more attractive to foreign investors

due to the liberalization of the economy which resulted in a higher level of FDIs.

8.4 EU trade and economic relations with Malaysia/ASEAN

Date: Tuesday, July 6th

2010

Time: 15:15 – 16:00

Topic: EU trade and economic relations with Malaysia/ASEAN

Speaker: Mr. Alessandro Paolicchi, Counsellor Head of Section - Trade and Economic

Relations, EU Delegation to Malaysia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

71

The second speaker in the afternoon session was Mr. Alessandro Paolicchi, the Counsellor –

Head of Section for Trade and Economic Relations, who gave a speech on EU trade and

economic relations with Malaysia and the ASEAN respectively. In the beginning of his talk,

Counsellor Paolicchi indicated that he was going to bring forth some ideas that should later on

lead to an active and vivid discussion on the topic. However, before he started with his

inspiring remarks, Mr. Paolicchi talked briefly about his personal background.

Mr. Paolicchi stated that even though he had worked in the European Commission in 1994 he

could primarily be seen as a trade expert since he left politics and worked in the merger

control area for about 5 years after his time in the Commission, and the fact that he holds an

MBA, the highest degree in business. After some time in the private sector Alessandro went

back to trade policy where he has been active for 8 months now as Counsellor Head of

Section – Trade and Economic Relations. Before that he was in Brussels dealing with EU-

ASEAN negotiations. There he was participating in the EU-ASEAN FTA process, which

unfortunately got stuck for the moment. Mr. Paolicchi’s speech focused primarily on the

reasons why the negotiations interrupted and what the further steps to a fruitful outcome

would be.

The EU-ASEAN FTA process

In the beginning of the process a group composed of 11 representatives was formed at EU

level to conduct a feasibility study on liberalising trade and investment agreements with

ASEAN. These analyses took a couple of years until they were finally completed. In principal

a FTA between the EU and the ASEAN would be an economically prudent undertaking for

Malaysia and ASEAN as it would result in an expected eight percent GDP growth

experienced by Malaysia and a two to three percent extra gain in GDP growth experienced by

the other ASEAN member states. However, as soon as the negotiation process started

complications occurred and in March 2009 the FTA negotiations interrupted, but not

officially cancelled.

Why did the negotiations come to a standstill?

It can be said that the FTA negotiations with the ASEAN failed for various reasons:

The ASEAN is not yet a sufficiently integrated region. The EU had naively imagined

negotiating with the ASEAN like with Western European countries. But the fact is that the

ASEAN in not yet a customs union. The only integration so far is that there are FTAs in place

among the member states and therefore a general FTA with the EU proofed not feasible.

However, it must be mentioned that a blueprint for economic integration has already been

72

compiled and this paper deals with the process and the necessary steps that would lead to a

really integrated ASEAN.

Contrary to negotiations in the European Union, the ASEAN countries speak all for

themselves. They all have their own budgetary recourses and competencies, they have not yet

assigned powers to a supranational body speaking for the ASEAN. And even though there are

FTAs at the regional level, these agreements deal mostly with goods only and do not address

non-tariff barriers to trade. That means it is still possible to hinder trade between member

states.

The political reason of Burma was an issue on the table, but certainly not the real reason for

the collapse of the negotiations. The issue was set aside for some years because the EU

thought that the ASEAN would step away from Burma, but that obviously did not happen as

the ASEAN sticks to their maxim of non-interference. Fact is that the EU cannot sign a dial

with an ASEAN including Burma, but the real reason for the negotiation moratorium was a

lack of integration on the regional level within ASEAN.

Economic relations and the future

Even though the FTA negotiations have come to a standstill, it has to be mentioned that

ASEAN represents the 5th

or 6th

largest trading partner of the EU, and for Malaysia the EU is

the 3rd

or 4th

largest partner economically. Due to these facts the EU is eager to achieve closer

cooperation between the two regions. Unfortunately, the list of ASEAN countries that are

willing and able to negotiate on a level sufficient for the EU is not long. In order to help the

willing countries the EU provides technical assistance and funds for capacity building to

foster further integration. All of this is done because the EU strives for a region to region

agreement with the ASEAN in the long run.

For the time being there is one high quality FTA in place. The example would be the FTA

with Singapore. Now, as Malaysia is run by a very efficient administration it might be the

next country with an FTA with the EU. Malaysia has developed a really straightforward

attitude (a yes is a yes, and a no is a no) and that makes it possible for the EU to do real

business with Malaysia. The next step towards an FTA is to agree on the parameters for

negotiation, to decide on what is in and out of scope. Such negotiations on the agenda are not

easy, it can even be said that they are one of the most difficult, however, important parts. The

standpoint of the EU-negotiators is clear. The EU knows exactly what it wants and there is a

clear mandate from the European Counsellors what the negotiators need to achieve. For them

it is probably the easiest way to remove customs, the same measures towards services is still

problematic though. However, in order to continue and complete negotiations it is necessary

to include investments, rules of IPRs, technical barriers to trade and competition policies.

73

When it comes to procurement of necessities it gets even more complicated. However, it is

necessary to have procurement on the agenda to create an outstanding, good FTA. Malaysia is

still reluctant to give in on this subject.

In fall of the year 2010 the FTA negotiations between the EU and Malaysia are going to be

officially re-launched. If everything runs well, Malaysia could be the second country with a

free trade agreement with the EU. However, it is important to manage getting the framework

ready within 18 months.

Unfortunately, we ran short on time due to our busy schedule on this day but we would still

like to express our appreciation to Mr. Alessandro Paolicchi, providing us with very valuable,

inside information on past and current FTA negotiations. We would very much appreciate his

participation during our next BFA trips and want to apologize for any inconveniences caused.

Contact Information

Alessandro PAOLICCHI

Counsellor

Head of Section - Trade and Economic

Relations

European Union

Delegation to Malaysia

Menara Tan & Tan, Suite 10.01 , 207 Jalan

Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia

Tel: (+60-3) 2723 7373

Fax: (+60-3) 2723 7337

E-mail: alessandro.paolicchi@ec.europa.eu

www.delmys.ec.europa.eu

74

8.5 Doing business in Malaysia (WKÖ)

The last person who spoke to us in the history-charged “Treaty Room” on this day was Dr.

Franz Schröder, the Austrian trade commissioner for Malaysia and Brunei. In his speech he

tried to give an insight in the ties between Austria and Malaysia as well as the impact of the

financial crisis of 2007 on Malaysia.

In the beginning Mr. Schröder stressed that over the last couple of years the volume of trade

between Austria and Malaysia increased on a constant basis. An average 4-6% growth was

experienced on a yearly basis. The financial crisis in 2007, however, had a disastrous impact

on Austrian exports to Malaysia. The exports plummeted by 80% leaving Austria with only

20% of the export volume that was realized before the crisis. A ray of hope can already be

seen in the development of the Austrian exports this year and according to the Austrian

Camber of Commerce there are good chances that the exports to Malaysia will reach normal

levels by the end of this year.

Another interesting point mentioned by Mr. Schröder is that Malaysia did not experience any

impacts of the international financial crisis at all. In his opinion this can be traced back to the

fact that Malaysia and especially capital of Kuala Lumpur are involved in large international

financial transactions and speculations only to a limited extent. Therefore the impact on the

Malaysian banking sector was not severe; it actually was hardly felt by the country.

A further topic of interest addressed by our designated speaker was the presence and

involvement of Austrian companies in Malaysia. Mr. Schröder pointed out that there are

approximately 40 Austrian firms doing business with and also in Malaysia, the latter meaning

having a permanent office or subsidiary in Malaysia.

Unfortunately, our meeting with Dr. Franz Schröder was shortened, as we quite unexpectedly

got a courtesy call from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to visit its Malaysia

External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE).

Date: Tuesday, July 6th

2010

Time: 16:00 – 16:40

Topic: Doing business in Malaysia (WKÖ)

Speaker: Dr. Franz Schröder, Austrian Trade Commissioner for Malaysia

and Brunei

Moderator: Erwin Ulreich (on behalf of Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic)

75

Contact Information

Franz Schröder

Österreichischer Handelsdelegierter für

Malaysia und Brunei

Suite 14.1, Level 14, Menara IMC, No.

8, Jalan Sultan Ismail

5020 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

T +60 3 20322830

F +60 3 20323130

E kualalumpur@wko.at

W http://wko.at/awo

8.6 Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE)

After the very informative BFA session day at the IDFR, we visited Malaysia External Trade

Development Corporation, also known as MATRADE, a one-stop-shop for businesses in

Malaysia. The corporation was established in March 1993 as a statutory agency under the

Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

As Malaysia’s national export promotion agency, MATRADE is responsible for assisting

Malaysian companies succeed in the international market. MATRADE’s vision of making

Malaysia the premier exporting nation is paired with its mission to develop and promote

Malaysia’s exports to the world.

MATRADE service is to promote Malaysia’s external trade with particular emphasis on the

exports of manufactured and semi-manufactured products and services. In addition, the

corporation formulates and implements export-marketing strategies and trade promotion

activities to increase Malaysia’s exports, undertakes market research, and creates a

comprehensive database of information for the development and improvement of Malaysia’s

trade. They organize training programmes to enhance the international marketing skills of

Malaysian exporters, promote and assist in services related to trade and protect Malaysia’s

international trade interest abroad.

Date: Tuesday, July 6th

2010

Time: 17:00 – 18:00

Topic: Visit to the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation

(MATRADE), Trade Museum and the Tour de Table

Speaker: Ms. Anita Abdul Aziz, Manager of the MEEC/MATRADE

76

In addition, they disseminate timely and relevant

information and market intelligence to help

Malaysian companies to gain a competitive edge

in foreign markets and they introduce Malaysian

companies to foreign importers seeking

Malaysian suppliers. MATRADE is also actively

involved in assisting foreign companies to source

for suppliers of Malaysian products and services,

and is represented worldwide at 40 locations in

major commercial cities. In Malaysia,

MATRADE has five local branches in Penang,

Terengganu, Johor, Sabah, and Sarawak.

Beside the ultimate vision to position Malaysia as a globally competitive trading nation in the

world, they represent Malaysia in any international forum in respect of any matter relating to

trade, and they facilitate and assist in service areas related to trade. Moreover, they advise the

Government in matters affecting or in any way connected with trade, and act as the agent of

the Government or for any person, body or organisation on such matters. For them it is

important to make sure that there are no barriers for export ready companies, and hence also

the registration process with MATRADE is free. In addition they set up a Help Desk which

serves as the first point of contact for visitors who have enquiries on MATRADE’s services

and programmes. The Help Desk also attends to phone-in enquiries from both the local and

overseas business community, and where required, will forward the enquiry to relevant

departments within or outside the organisation for follow-up action.

Among the services provided by MATRADE are the MATRADE Business Library,

electronic publications, market information, the organization of overseas trade missions,

specialised marketing missions, international trade fairs, promotion booths, Malaysian

product exhibitions and in-store promotions, business matching following trade enquiries,

incoming buying missions, incoming trade delegations, and seminars and workshops.

Furthermore, we were happy to visit the MATRADE Exhibition Centres, which included

domestic and international exhibitions of export products, as well as the history of trade for

Malaysia.

The corporation shows its effectiveness by setting short term goals and analysing their

achievements quarterly. They organise at least 30 trade promotion activities every three

months, and they try to entertain, answer and distribute information on trade opportunities

within 4 days from the date of acceptance. According to their figures of the first quarter in

77

2010, they received more than 6000 enquiries between January and March. Furthermore, to

act also as a role model, they do care about updated publications, websites and information

about market developments. As part of MATRADE’s ongoing efforts to improve its delivery

system and to reach out to companies outside the Klang Valley, a series of briefing and

consultation sessions were organized. These sessions serves as a platform for the exporting

community to provide feedback.

A wide range of assistance programmes are provided by the Government to local companies

in an effort to encourage companies to aggressively develop and market Malaysian products

and services to the world. These programmes include tax incentives, financial assistance in

the form of grants, loans and insurance as well as institutional support.

Contact Information

Anita Abdul Aziz

Manager

Malaysia Export Exhibition Center

2nd floor, Menara MATRADE

Jalan Khidmet Usaha, Off Jalan Duta

50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

T +60 3 6207 7077

F +60 3 6203 7259

E eta@matrade.gov.my

W http://matrade.gov.my

8.7 Barbecue-Reception with IDFR Members

At the end of our first session day in

Kuala Lumpur, our group was invited

by the IDFR to a barbecue-reception

and a garden cocktail. Together with

the IDFR Master students and most of

the speakers we were pleased to listen

to during the day; we enjoyed an

incredible dinner provided by the

institute. It was a great pleasure to talk

to all the speakers and IDFR

Date: Tuesday, July 6th

2010

Time: 19:00 – 22:30

Topic: Networking Opportunity with IDFR Members

78

representatives also offside the official sessions and to exchange and share personal points of

view on matters discussed during the day. Moreover, we had the possibility to talk to the

IDFR’s Master students about their personal experiences in Malaysia as well as asking

questions about the study programme and other topics of interest. Of course, the students were

also curious about our own experiences and backgrounds, and so our conversations were

going on for the whole evening. Once more we had the chance to network, and lots of us were

exchanging contact details to stay in touch also after our study trip. We would like to thank

our hosts very much for this great opportunity and the delicious dinner, which we definitely

cannot take for granted.

9 Wednesday, 7th

July 2010

9.1 Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

At 10:00 we arrived at the

ministry of foreign affairs where

we were warmly welcomed by

Mr. Aznor Mahat who held a very

insightful and interesting speech

about the history, vision and the

function of Malaysia´s Ministry

of Foreign Affairs. Apart from

that Mr. Aznor Mahat provided

us with the history of Wisma

Putra, the building of the Ministry

Date: Wednesday, July 7th 2010

Time: 10:00 – 12:00

Topic: Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – history/current affairs briefing,

Tour-de-House and reception

Speaker: Mohd. Aznor Mahat, Secretary Ass. Information & Public Diplomacy, and

Neermal A/L Shunmugam, Director Ass. Information & Public Diplomacy

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

79

of Foreign Affairs from 1966, the date of establishment, until now. Furthermore, Mr. Aznor

Mahat gave us an overview about Malaysia´s foreign policy, its criteria and characteristics,

and its role within ASEAN.

According to Mr. Aznor Mahat the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is per definition an agency

which has been given the mandate and responsibility to conduct Malaysia´s foreign relations

with other countries in protecting and developing Malaysia´s interest as well as to contribute

to the creation of an international community that is just and equitable through proactive

diplomatic practice. Wisma Putra, the Malay word for the ministry, was for the first time

established in 1956, a year before Malaysia´s independence.

Contact Information

MOHD. AZNOR MAHAT

Principal Assistant Secretary

Department of Info Public Diplomacy

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Wisma Putra

No.1, Jalan Wisma Putra

Precint 2, 62602 Putrajaya

Malaysia

Tel: 603-8887 4214

Fax: 603-8889 2720

E-mail: mdaznor@kln.gov.my

9.2 Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations – Rio + 20

Closing the luncheon reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we rushed back to the

IDFR, in order to listen to a very interesting and deeply emotional speech about economy,

development and environment. This speech was given by Ms. Datuk Ting Weng Lien,

Malaysian top diplomat (retired). After a short introduction by Prof. Bajrektarevic, Ms. Lien

provided us with both general facts and personal experiences followed by assessments

concerning the UN Conference of Environment and Development in 1992. The 1992’s Earth

Summit had been followed by the World Summit of Johannesburg in 2002 and was expected

Date: Wednesday, July 7th 2010

Time: 12:15 – 13:30

Topic: Economy, Development and Environment – “Rio + 20”

Speaker: H.E. Ms. Datuk Ting Weng Lien, Malaysian Ambassador (retired)

(former Malaysian MFA Chief negotiator on environmental issues, and

head of national delegation to the Rio summit)

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

80

to finally lead to the so-called “Rio plus 20” round in New York in 2012. According to Ms.

Lien the main issues which had been discussed in Rio and Johannesburg were:

Trade

IPR (Intellectual Property Rights and Product Piracy)

Funding

Biosafety as a measure of protection

GMFoods (genetically modified foods)

Forests

Indigenous communities

Technology

Contact Information

H.E. Ambassador Ms. Datuk Ting Weng

Lien, Malaysian top diplomat (retired)

Via MFA

81

9.3 Malaysian Tourism Centre - Mak Yung Theatre

After enjoying our lunch break together

with Ms. Lien, we departed for the

Malaysian Tourism Centre (MATIC) in

order to watch both a traditional Malaysian

Dance performance and the Mak Yung

Cultural Show.

After a short and warm welcome of the

Centre’s representative we had the great

pleasure to watch an exciting and

extraordinary colorful dance-show, where

we got to know the very different dancing styles of Malaysia’s various ethnic groups. The

very amazing motility of the dancers’ highly flexible bodies, the stories that were told without

words and the single performances’ choreographies turned out to be a breathtaking

experience.

The second part of this cultural event, the Mak Yung Theatre, represented an important part

of Malaysia’s cultural history. We were informed that Makyung was a traditional dance

drama that brought together the various artistic elements found in dance, dialogue, acting

performance, comedy and music. In accordance with the conferment by the UNESCO, the

Seri Nilm Makyung Group of Istana Budaya had been set up in November 2005 by the

Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage Malaysia. Accompanied by the very strong and

obtrusive voices of the actors and the musicians, we were shown the ancient story of a young

prince who revived a beautiful princess lying in a swoon, but who afterwards was forbidden

Date: Wednesday, July 7th 2010

Time: 15:00 – 17:30

Topic: Performance at the Malaysian Tourism Centre (MATIC)

Speaker: Welcome by a representative of the MATIC

Performances: Traditional Malaysian Dance Show, Mak Yung Theatre

Performance (specially staged for the BFA2 participants)

82

to marry her, because his older and very dogmatic brother claimed the beauty to be his wife.

As the younger prince resigned, the story finished with a happy ending.

After a very efficient, small refreshment in the theatre’s café we departed for a networking

dinner at the Austrian Ambassador’s residence.

9.4 Dinner at the Residence of the Austrian Ambassador

As a nice uprounding of the day we received an invitation by the Ambassador of Austria to

Malaysia, H.E. Andrea Wicke. This evening was characterized by warm talks and open

exchanges.

Date: Wednesday, July 7th 2010

Time: 18:30 – 22:00

Topic: Joint Networking buffet

Ambassador call by H.E. Andrea Wicke

Residence of the Austrian Ambassador to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 20

83

10 Thursday, 8th

July 2010

10.1 Meeting with Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir at the IDFR premises

First and foremost, Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade

and Industry, expressed his pleasure to have us as guests in Malaysia, aiming at contributing

to strengthen the Malaysian-Austrian bond and relations, followed by the close connection he

felt with IDFR, as it was his father, his Excellency Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, who

founded it during his time as Prime Minister in 1991.

Since its independence from Britain in 1957,

Malaysia has been growing rapidly. Through its

population, characterized by three major ethnical

groups (Malay, Chinese, Indian), Malaysia has seen

certain challenges in the history to bring them

together successfully and on equal footing in order

to convince Britain that Malaysia was ready for

independence. At that time Malaysia had been a

small country with a population of approximately

ten million people. Finally, Malaysia gained

independence by a peaceful diplomatic agreement

with Great Britain. On May, 13th 1969, a disastrous

bloodshed shook the country, which will never be

forgotten and rests engraved in the mind of every

Malay. After general elections a discontentment

was noticeable peaking in a fight between the three

ethnical groups. Nonetheless, Mr. Y. P. Dato’

Date: Thursday, July 8th 2010

Time: 10:00 – 12:00

Topic: Business for the New century – Malaysia’s path to political and economic

stability, and Tour-de-table

Speaker: Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, Minister Deputy, Ministry of

International Trade and Industry

Moderator: H.E. Amb. Abdullah Faiz M. Zain, Senior Director of IDFR, MFA Malaysia

and Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

84

Mukhriz Tun Mahathir pointed

out that to some extent, as

terrible as it was, it was valuable

and out of a tragedy one must

learn. Fights were also

undermined by a growing

discontent due to economic

disparity between the different

ethnicities, fostering conflict.

Since then, equal distribution

receives high priority in the

government policy.

As the economy continued to

grow, equal distribution has increased in importance. These new economic policies, according

to Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, brought even more economic growth and

contributed to stability and peace within the society.

Opportunities in business as well as education have increased enormously and sectors of high

productivity have received great attention for competition purposes. Although Malaysia is a

rather small country in relation to the rest of the world it occupies the 27th

rank as largest

trading nation worldwide, after having been ranked 19th

already once before. Over time,

Malaysia succeeded in becoming a large upper middle income country. However, as a sealing

blocks them to enhance further, this fact manifests a trap that represents great risk to fall back.

Thus, a new economic model has been launched in order to strengthen the Malaysian

economy and let it prosper even further. This new policy aims at increasing income from

7000 USD to 15000 USD by 2020, shifting from a labor intensive to a high yield, creative and

technology intensive economy. This fosters the need of a strong and guiding government even

further.

In the course of that, the 10th

Malaysian plan has been launched, which will be in place and

valid until 2015. This plan provides the budget plan for the new economic model.

Certain challenges raised by Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir that Malaysia has to

tackle in the future are healthy and strong relations to the outside world, as its impact on

Malaysia as a trading nation will grow. Moreover, Malaysia has to manage and reverse the

trade slow down, the country experienced in 2009 with the U.S., representing one of

Malaysia’s biggest trading partners.

Senior Director of the IDFR Amb. Faiz, H.E. Mahathir and prof.

Bajrektarevic, Treaty Room, Kuala Lumpur IDFR 21

85

However, with the countries’ unique strengths such as its multicultural population, a high

savings rate combined with a low foreign debt rate, it will manage to overcome those

challenges successfully.

Furthermore, Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir stressed the dependence of Malaysia to

China, due to close economic ties and a Chinese stimulus package which has been launched in

times of financial crisis and that had helped Malaysia to recover quicker from the crisis than

expected.

Thereafter, he explained to us the concept of Islamic banking and its theory based on “values

based banking”. Paradoxically, Islamic banking is mostly used in non-Islamic countries by

non-Islamic people. After the crisis, when people in general lost their trust in institutions and

government, Islamic banking experienced an upturn worldwide. Also in Europe, Islamic

banking grew in interest in the past view years. Just recently, Christine Lagarde, the French

Foreign Minister, came to Malaysia and asked for help to let Paris become the world center of

Islamic banking, thus overtake Great Britain.

When it comes to Malaysia’s economy, the country’s priority moved from food to

pharmaceutics, logistics and cosmetics.

Currently, Malaysia is undergoing certain changes in parliament. They lost the two third

majority in parliament after the elections in 2008, as the opposition has taken over three

additional states. According to Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, they are facing critical

times at the moment, being confronted with a new scenario they had to adapt to.

In the Q & A session issues such as apprenticeship in Malaysia, further steps in Malaysian-

EU and ASEAN-Malaysian cooperation as well as migration policy have been discussed.

Concerning apprenticeship in Malaysia, they do not have anything comparable to Europe,

putting their focus rather on the

academic side. Nonetheless, Mr.

Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun

Mahathir admits seeing certain

potential for it in Malaysia in the

future to come as he perceives

practical based experience as

extremely important. When it

comes to Malaysian-EU and

ASEAN-Malaysian cooperation,

he expressed the immense

86

importance of the EU for Malaysia with a trading volume amounting to 11 percent. Also the

investment mainly coming from Germany and Britain is extremely important. Malaysia is

currently working on a FTA with the EU in order to further enhance these developments. As

we already heard in former briefings, the EU is only designing FTA’s with individual

countries of this region, as the negotiations on an EU-ASEAN FTA would be too difficult to

conclude, as there are, at the time being, still too many differences and incongruities on

certain issues, as well as different stages of regional integration.

Malaysia’s migration policy, according to Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir is a delicate

issue that needs to be handled with the greatest care. However, he points out that this is not

only an issue to Malaysia but to the rest of the world alike, as constellations of every country

will change. Malaysia is hosting around 1.5 Mio low-skilled guest workers, mostly from

Indonesia. Over the last couple of years, stricter migration policies have been developed but

being aware of the necessity of foreign labor to develop and grow, migration will continue

and grow. Thus, he sees the need to push Malay people to higher skilled jobs .

In this concern he sees the social impact of delicate issue to tackle. Though major

improvements have been achieved, he still sees room for improvement, presenting the

example of Dubai as a pioneer.

As a conclusion, it should be highlighted that

Malaysia is a very multicultural and

multiethnic country, which makes up for his

greatest challenge, but for its greatest asset

alike. In order to achieve an equilibrium,

everyone may have to take certain sacrifices.

But its “Unity in diversity” is something the

country needs to protect, strengthen and

uphold. Malaysia, truly Asia!

Contact information

Dato’Mukhriz Mahathir

Deputy Minister

Ministry of International Trade and Industry

15th Floor, Block 10

Government Offices Complex

Jalan Duta

50622 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Tel: +6 03-6201 1317

Fax: +6 03-6201 7346

E-Mail: mukhrizm@miti.gov.my

Web: www.miti.gov.my

87

10.2 Ministry of Tourism

Our next stop was the Ministry of Tourism, where we had a warm welcome by Mr. Mohd

Halimi Ibrahim and his colleagues, the officers of the four divisions in the Ministry. The

presentation started with the Malaysian tourism performance in the world.

By 2020 the number of tourists is expected to rise up to 1.6 billion with an increase in each

particular region. As you can see in the graph below, Europe had the biggest share of

incoming tourists in Malaysia which presents 53% of the total in 2008.

Date: Thursday, July 8th 2010

Time: 13:30 – 15:30

Topic: Tourism & Hospitality Industry in Malaysia: Future challenges

Speaker: Mr. Mohd Halimi Ibrahim, Under Secretary of International Affairs

Division, Ministry of Tourism Malaysia

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

88

Concerning the tourism performance in Malaysia in 2003 one can say that it decreased due to

SARS and the Iraq War. From 1999 to 2009 an increase of almost 300% in arrivals could be

seen. Most of tourists with Asian origin coming to Malaysia are from Singapore.

The Malaysian Tourism Policy, which was the last topic of the presentation, contributes to

substantial economic activities and employment for Malaysians. The vision of the Ministry is

to increase the level of awareness so that Malaysia will become a premier tourism country as

well as tourism should be a major contributor to national economy.

89

After the presentation we discussed topics such as the infrastructure in KL, which is as we

had already experienced quite good, especially in comparison to Jakarta. Also important for

the tourism sector are of course the airports and the existence of direct flights. Mr. Mohd

Halimi Ibrahim mentioned that the existing ones are in good condition, a fact of which they

can be proud of.

Marketing

The discussion was followed up by a short

introduction video about Malaysia and the

presentation of the Marketing department.

There are four main objectives of this

department, which include for example to

increase foreign tourist arrivals and to

extend the length of stays.

In general, one can say, that the tourist

expenditure is rising and that most

European tourists come from the UK. A

higher number of Austrian tourists travel to Thailand than to Malaysia, because at the moment

Thailand is one of the most popular holiday destinations, but Malaysia also hopes to reach this

status too.

In order to reach their goal, the Ministry of Tourism elaborated on nine strategies to become a

top tourist destination, which include for example increasing the demand for travel to

Malaysia and generating new sources of growth as well as attracting more participants to

MM2H (Malaysia My Second Home), homestays and last but not least encouraging repeat

visitors.

90

But before becoming a number one tourist destination, Malaysia has to overcome its

challenges, to name a few: the lack of quality of foreign language speaking tourist guides.

Others are the shortage of rooms during summer/winter season and limited airline seats as

well as direct connectivity.

When talking about the tourism coverage in ASEAN, we got to know that there is a forum

and also working groups with the members of the ASEAN countries. There are regular

meetings and discussions and they have a very good collaboration which also involves the

government. In addition, funds are allocated to this forum. In order to promote Malaysia,

media and tour operators are brought in to see the country and to write about it, not only what

is told to them, but also what they could see and experience on their own because this is much

more effective.

Contact Information

Mohd Halimi Ibrahim

Under Secretary of International Affair

Division, Ministry of Tourism Malaysia

Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putry (PWTC)

45, Jalan Tun Ismail,

50695 Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia

http://www.motour.gov.my/

Tel: +603-2696 3143 (DL)

+603-2693 7111

Fax: +603-2691 5723

E-Mail: halimi@motour.gov.my

10.3 Malaysian Federal Parliament

General Information

Date: Thursday, July 8th 2010

Time: 16:00 – 18:30

Topic: Plenary Session observance and the Parliamentary briefings

Speaker: Mr. Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Minister of Higher Education

Ms. Fong Po Kuan, Member of the Malaysian Parliament

Ms. Rosnah Hj Abd Rashid Shirlin, Deputy Health Minister

Mr. Y. P. Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, Deputy Minister, Ministry of

International Trade and Industry

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

91

Malaysia practices Parliamentary Democracy with a Constitutional Monarchy. The

Parliamentary Democratic System is divided into three main branches: Legislative, Executive

and Judiciary. The Parliament is the highest legislative authority in the country. It is made up

of his Majesty The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Dewan Negara and Dewan Rakyat.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong

His Majesty The Yang di-Pertuan

Agong is the Supreme Head of

State. His Majesty is elected by the

Conference of Rulers and holds

office for five years. However, the

King does not preside over both

houses, Dewan Negara and Dewan

Rakyat, but addresses the two

Houses as and when necessary. By

convention, this is only done at the

beginning of each Parliamentary

session, which starts each year.

Dewan Negara (The Senate)

Dewan Negara comprises 70 members of which two members are elected by each of the 13

State Legislative Assemblies and 44 are appointed by His Majesty The Yang di-Pertuan

Agong for their experience and wisdom, or represent ethnic minorities, professions,

commerce and other groups. A full term of office of a Senator is three years and could be

extended to two terms. Dewan Negara is not affected by the dissolution of the Parliament.

Since 26th April 2010 the President of Dewan Negara is Abu Zahar Ujang from the United

Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the biggest party in Malaysia.

Dewan Rakyat (The House of Representatives)

Dewan Rakyat has 222 members, each representing one constituency. Election of members is

held every five years. The number of members of the Barisan National Component Parties is

137. The opposition parties consist of 78 members and 7 independents. The speaker of Dewan

Rakyat is Pandikar Amin Mulia, who is also from the UMNO and since 2008 in office. The

new prime minister, who is in office for only one year is working very hard in trying to make

improvements on many fronts. He wants to give, for example, more autonomy to public

universities.

92

UMNO = United Mays National Organisation

MCA = Malaysian Chinese Association

MIC = Malaysia Indian Congress

PKR = Parti Keadilan Rakyat

PAS = Pan Malaysia Islamic Party

DAP = Democratic Action Party

Functions of the Parliament

To pass law

To make amendments to existing laws

To approve new taxes

To examine the government’s policies

To approve the government’s expenditure/spending

We also got the chance to visit the Parliament during a

discussion, which was very interesting. During this

discussion Ms. Fong Po Kuan raised their voice to get

attention concerning the problem, that when a draft of a

bill is made, the parties are not consulted although this

is necessary. We were all very impressed by her

pushing temper and ability to fight for her right. She

also mentioned the fact, that only if there is gender

equality in the Parliament, the country can move

forward and establish equality in the country.

At the moment there is one elected female minister, four female senators and few female

deputy ministers.

93

After leaving the discussion in the Parliament we had the pleasure to meet Mr. Saifuddin

Abdullah, Deputy Minister of Higher Education. He briefed us about the Ministry of Higher

Education, which covers issues of universities, polytechnics, colleges and R&D (however

fundamental research is done by universities). Although Malaysia increasingly put more

importance on R&D, sciences and technology there is still a strong need to spend more on it.

A first step was done by the current Prime Minister who gives more autonomy to public

universities, which simply means that they can decide what happens to the money they raised

on their own. He ended his briefing with a short introduction about Melaka, as we told him

that we had planned to go there: “Melaka is where everything begins in Malaysia”.

Followed by this briefing we had the honor to meet Ms. Rosnah Hj Abd Rashid Shirlin,

Deputy Health Minister and Head of the women’s wing. The members of the women’s wing

are aged between 18 and 35 years and they deal not

only with medical issues, but also with public

health. In Malaysia, women are given a lot of

opportunities. This fact was very well displayed in

the case of H1N1, where Malaysia lost 82 lives;

women had the chance to show what they can. One

could see that women manage it differently than

men, because they are very open with the incidents,

but on the other side strict in terms of

measurement. There exists an own laboratory to get

a better health system in the country and plans to

build new hospitals, also in the rural area, already

exist. The relationship between women in

Parliament is fantastic and they want to see more

women in government. Another positive thing

mentioned by her was MM2H, which was

introduced to expatriates and is very important for

the country due to the reason that there is a need for

them and therefore possibilities to live and work in Malaysia have to be established.

Before leaving the Parliament we had once again the pleasure to meet Mr. Y. P. Dato’

Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry, who informed us

about the father of Ms. Fong Po Kuan, former Prime Minister for 22 years. He was the longest

time in office and the impact that he left is still there. Even nowadays he is brought up many

times, although he had already retired in 2003. As we asked him why he did not participate in

the discussion in the Parliament, he told us that during the discussions a Deputy Minister is

94

not allowed to stand up and raise his voice because he sits at the front desk, even though other

Ministers say something wrong. Normally the Parliament consists of the government and the

opposition, but some years ago some of the members of the government and the opposition

began to declare independency, which resulted in seven independents in the Parliament at the

moment.

Contact Information

Parliament Malaysia

Parliament Malaysia, Bangunan

Parlimen,

50680 Kuala Lumpur.

Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Minister of

Higher Education

Fong Po Kuan, Member of the Malaysian

Parliament

Rosnah Hj Abd Rashid Shirlin, Deputy

Minister of Health

web: http://www.parlimen.gov.my/

Tel: 603-20721955

E-Mail: saifuddin61@yahoo.com

E-Mail: pkfongz@yahoo.com

E-Mail: RosnahShirlin@yahoo.com

95

11 Friday, 9th

July 2010

11.1 Day-long excursion to Melaka

General Information

Present-day Melaka reflects its tumultuous

history - a multi-racial population of

Malays, Indians, and Chinese call this

historic city home. Most notably,

Peranakan and Portuguese communities

still thrive in Melaka, a reminder of the

state's long experience with trading and

colonization. Once people were traders of

spices and clothes, which was easily done

over the sea. We were told by our guide that Melaka is known as Venice of the East because it

has similarities with Venice in Italy, despite the fact that reconstruction is still ongoing with

the purpose to attract more visitors in the future. By having a close look at the architecture,

which is famous for its uniqueness, it becomes immediately clear to us that this place reflects

all facets of former conquerors and their descendants and is therefore, inscribed as World

Heritage Site by the UNESCO. Next to historical buildings near the river, tourism flourishes

and attracts all kind of visitors by its colorful appearance such as extensive decorated

trishaws.

The State of Melaka is currently on the course of rapid economic growth and development. At

the moment more than 500 factories from the US, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore are

installed their offices at this historical place.

11.2 Graveyard in Bukit China

Our first stop was at a graveyard in Bukit China from where we had a good view over the

delta where we could see where people in the past started to do business and made the city

Date: Friday, July 9th

2010

Time: 11:30 – 11:50

Place: Graveyard in Bukit China

96

renowned as a water trading point. Melaka's Chinese Cemetery is situated on a hill just

outside the city centre. Chinese cemeteries are always built on higher grounds, so the

deceased are closer to heaven. The graves are very much neglected. There are some 12,000 of

them, and the oldest date back to the 17th century. At the foot of the hill, we decided together

with our guide, to climb the hill, which was more a gentle slope than a true hill. There were

graves all around, semi-circular in shape, or even shaped like the Greek letter omega. Many of

them were overgrown by trees, grass, and weeds; and the Chinese characters were eroded. A

few graves were still in remarkably good condition. Also very interesting from our point of

view was the fact that one Chinese grave was already built but with future purpose, stating the

name and the date of birth of the person but leaving the column of date of death, in this case

named departure, empty.

In the 15th century a Chinese Princess, Hang Li Poh, married the Sultan. The purpose of this

marriage was to strengthen diplomatic relationship between China and the Melaka Sultanate.

The princess’s handmaidens married local Malay men. Their descendants are the Pernakans,

which means "born locally." They are also known as Babas and Nyonyas. Soon more

Chinese traders came to Melaka, all with high expectations of success in trade. Some were

successful, but others died before achieving success. They were buried at Bukit China. Their

families had not traveled with them, and there was no one to pray for their souls and look

after their graves but the Chinese Kapitans took care them. Kapitans are appointed chiefs of

Chinese societies or clans. The Chinese immigrants had language and cultural problems when

they came to live in Melaka.

Soon they formed clans that were

self-governed. These clans took

care of education, finance, and

also had a social function. This

system still works today. Today,

Bukit China is not only a

cemetery, but also a park where

many Melakans go running and

mountain biking in the evening.

Others practice Tai Chi while

enjoying the view.

97

11.3 Stadhuys Christ Church

A few minutes later we were looking around in front of the red-

coated Stadhuys and Christ Church which was erected in 1753

and believed to be oldest Protestant Church in the region

including other buildings within the vicinity of St Paul´s Hill. In

front of the Church we saw highly decorated trishaws full of

flowers. We walked up a few stairs to visit a museum where

backdrops were showing traditional and daily pictures of

activities in former times.

11.4 Eva Moser old fort

One of the first things the Portuguese did when they took over Melaka in 1511 was building a

massive fortification which encircled the base of St Paul's Hill. Inside the A'Famosa were the

governor's palace, bishop's palace, state halls, five churches and two hospitals. When the

Dutch seized Melaka, they kept the fort, but moved most of the administrative functions for

the growing city outside the walls. After the British took over, they separated the

fortifications.

Date: Friday, July 9th

2010

Time: 12:00 – 12:30

Place: Stadhuys Christ Church

Date: Friday, July 9th

2010

Time: 13:00 – 13:30

Place: Eva Moser – old fort

98

11.5 City Council of Melaka

In the afternoon we reached

the building of City Council

of historic Melaka. After a

warm welcome Mr. Hj.

Mansor Sudin gave us an

impressive overview about

tourism and future plans for

Melaka. At the beginning of

Mr. Sudin’s presentation, he

provided the audience with

some historical background

of the city itself.

Melaka – where all began. The Council is responsible for the image of the city as well as for

promoting Melaka.

History of Melaka

The state of Melaka is one of the oldest states in Malaysia and has a colorful history to its

existence.

According to the legend, the name Melaka was coined when a Palembang prince from the

island of Sumatra set foot in Melaka and was resting below a tree when he saw a mouse deer

outwitting a dog. Seeing such an ominous event, the Palembang prince Parameswara asked

his aides for the name of the tree that he was resting under - he was told that it is the Melaka

Tree.

Date: Friday, July 9th 2010

Time: 15:00 – 16:30

Topic: Action Plan of Melaka

Speaker: Mr. Hj. Mansor Sudin, Director of Urban Planning

Moderator: Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic

99

Melaka grew in importance

throughout the 1400s and especially

so considering that it had a strategic

position in the Straits of Melaka. It

was not surprising that it had a

flourishing port which became an

important meeting point for the

traders from China and India. It

later grew into being a

cosmopolitan town with many

Chinese and Indian traders setting

foot and continuing their businesses in Melaka. The Chinese settlers who lived amongst the

original Malay inhabitants soon found themselves assimilated into the latter's culture and

lifestyle. These Chinese settlers became known as Babas and Nyonyas.

As the town of Melaka became influential and wealthy, its empire expanded and the Malay

language became important in that part of South East Asia. The religion of Islam also grew in

tandem with the Sultans embracing the said religion. Being a thriving town both financially

and strategically placed, it was no wonder that it later became coveted in the eyes of the

Portuguese. In 1511, the Portuguese overthrew the Melaka royalty and government and ruled

over Melaka until 1641 when it fell to the Dutch.

During the Portuguese reign, Catholicism was introduced by the missionaries and many

Portuguese also set foot to settle in Melaka, the descendents of which are still found today. In

fact, the descendents of these early Portuguese settlers still speak the ancient Portuguese

language. Meanwhile, the Dutch rule brought with it many fine buildings, churches and

infrastructure, the most famous of which is probably the red-coloured buildings also known as

the Stadthuys.

After the Dutch came the British in 1795. The British continued to develop the town of

Melaka and it later became known as part of the famous Straits Settlements together with

Penang and Singapore. English became an important spoken and written language and it is

not difficult to get around Melaka if you are English speaking.

Due to the fact that on 7th July 2008 the UNESCO officially inscribed Melaka as World

Heritage Site, the conservation of urban heritage resources, tangible and intangible, are a

matter of utmost importance. Therefore, Mr. Sudin enlightened the Action Plan for Melaka

over the next ten years, which presents the common vision of protecting the uniqueness of

100

Melaka, by introducing collaboration among diverse stakeholders in the process of developing

tourism industry.

Action Plan of Melaka

The Action Plan of Melaka deals with numerous

points, all in all 14 different steps to implement the

plan itself. The main issue, which was described to the

audience, was the lack of legal documents to enhance

proper control and monitoring of further development

with special regard to the conservation area, due to the

fact that existing documents are out of date. As a result

of the Bhaktapur conference five actions form the

Action Plan including for example Action Plan for

Cultural Heritage Tourism in Melaka Historic City, or

Action Plan for the Melaka Historic City Conservation

Area. The latter one is the most important issue among

the actions, including several proposals to protect the

conservation area, for example, detailed inventory

control of the buildings in this area to facilitate further

protection by specific guidelines, or to develop a sustainable strategy to improve the current

traffic situation including pedestrian matters. These steps could be realized by a

comprehensive study of landscape, traffic and other factors and thus, yield to the desired

result.

Another factor, which was not stated in the Action Plan itself but assumes significant

importance, is the Melaka River. The enormous magnitude of the Melaka River has been

enduring for many centuries now, and is still of great importance. Therefore, one part of the

rehabilitation program was and is still dedicated to the conservation and amendment of this

very issue. Many different steps of development are worth considering, for example the most

significant one is the improvement of the river conditions itself to make this marvelous port

more attractive to future visitors. Therefore, the objective of development accompanies also

include other ideas which were presented to the audience, for example integrating urban

design elements, developing a magnificent riverside, which still reflects the city’s cultural

heritage and introducing a barrage tidal gate to easily control the water level, just to name a

few.

101

To relieve the river’s significance, which was explained to us before in detail, we relished the

opportunity to receive great impressions at first hand at Sungai Melaka River Cruise, San

Antonio.

11.6 River Cruise

We enjoyed a river cruise over the Melaka River

from where we saw historic buildings, colorful

front paintings telling the historical development

of Melaka, replica of Portuguese ships, and had

the impression of being in little east Venice with

several cafés located at the promenade. Besides

from that we recognized the grayish water,

learned about their reptilian inhabitants, as well

as, got an insight into the compelling architecture of Malayan houses including their complex

structure and merit.

11.7 Melaka Tower

After the relaxing river cruise we stopped at the Melaka Tower. Around the tower was a

compact elevator surrounding the tower, which was moving upward, and turning on its own

axis. Up there we had a spectacular view over the city with a fascinating sunset, where we had

the feeling that history seems to become tangible. After a quick snack close by we returned to

Kuala Lumpur.

Contact Information

Director of Urban Planning www.mbmb.gov.my

Date: Friday, July 9th

2010

Time: 17:30 – 18:30

Place: River Cruise

Date: Friday, July 9th

2010

Time: 19:00 – 19:30

Place: Melaka Tower

102

Mr. Hj. Mansor Sudin,

Graha Makmur, No.1,

Lebuh Ayer Keroh,

75450 Melaka, Malaysia

Tel.: +606 285 9848

Fax: +606-232-5716

E-Mail: mansor@mbmb.gov.my.

Contact number 0196555561

12 Conclusion

Rushing from one event to another; Meeting different speakers; Hearing different views and

opinions; Mingling with locals; Enjoying the food; Appreciating the hospitality; Feeling the

dynamics and optimism of the region; Managing to sleep in awkward positions and places;

Spending hours stuck in traffic; Getting to know a different culture – Grasping and feeling

Asia!

First, we would like to emphasize the uniqueness of this trip. While going on holidays by

oneself, one will never be able to understand and experience this region in a way we did. We

not only learned new things, but also enjoyed conversations with our “fellow colleagues”,

having the opportunity to exchange information with experts and feel the dynamics of South-

East Asia.

We had the pleasure to receive valuable information on and deal with intercultural business

and geopolitical topics with experts from the region, sharing their experiences and their

knowledge with us. Having our focus on Export-oriented Management as well as Tourism

Management, this knowledge is of high value to us and will help us to conduct business with

Asian partners. It might always seem easy to learn out of a book; however, travels will always

remain the key to understand the culture and develop successful business relations.

This trip not only made us grow professionally, but also personally: first, I would like to

emphasize the atmosphere within the group. It was a great experience to share all these

impressions with fellow students from different semesters, different programs and with

different backgrounds. I was impressed by the dynamism and motivation within the group,

exploring a different culture and grasp as many impressions as possible. It is also worth

mentioning the professionalism and commitment of each of the colleagues, who decided to

travel so far from home.

While being back in school and continuing our studies at the FH IMC Krems, we are still in

the process of digesting all impressions and information that made this study trip unique and

103

unforgettable. It might take weeks or months until we finally processed all perceptions;

however, we can already say that this trip has changed the way we think and perceive our

environment.

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in

the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

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13 Personal Comments

Dear prof. Anis,

thank you for your visit and the kind words.

Your students impressed everyone and there was an impressive ASEAN-press-release on

your visit already (see below).

All the best for Malaysia and do come back to Indonesia before long.

Klaus Wölfer Klaus Wölfer Austrian Ambassador to Indonesia, Singapore and Timor-Leste Austrian Representative to ASEAN Jl. Terusan Denpasar Raya Kuningan, JAKARTA 12950 Tel.: +62 21 259 3037

Fax: +62 21 52920651

e-mail: klaus.woelfer@bmeia.gv.at www.austrian-embassy.or.id

Dear Anis,

Great Times to be remembered and repeated soon :)

Thanks a lot for your big spirit and enthusiasm.

You have inspired the people in Bandung and Jakarta. Do keep in touch.

See you soon.

Eddy

SUGIRI Eduard Eddy Dipl.Ing. Honorary Consul Bandung Jalan Padasaluyu Utara II, No. 3 Postanschrift: Bandung 40154, Indonesia

Dear Prof Anis

International Law and Global Political Studies

University of Applied Sciences IMC-Krems

THANK YOU AND HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN

I took this opportunity to thank you and other Austrian students whom participated in the

programme on your overall kindness and cooperation. The Ministry hopes that you would

find your visit to Malaysia, especially to Putrajaya and Ministry of Foreign Affairs beneficial

and fruitful.

We are pleased to welcome you again to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia in near

future.

Regards, NEERMAL SHUNMUGAM ASSISTANT DIRECTOR DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION & PUBLIC DIPLOMACY MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MALAYSIA

105

Dear Professor Anis,

I just wanted to express my gratitude for making the Business Focus ASEAN 2010 program

happen and giving me the chance to participate in it.

Actually this is a great program and I am not sure whether all of us realize what effort and

determination you had to put behind in order to make it work smoothly for us. We should not

take something like this for granted. I have participated in various so-called Summer Schools

and Summer Study programs but this is by far the one with the highest “return on investment”

ratio. Since it was a very condensed program and I think we still need some days, or weeks

maybe to digest everything but I liked this study trip very much and I hope I can participate

again next year, maybe at the Business Focus Central Asia.

In addition I wanted to thank you again for the great internship and for introducing me to

Excellency Wicke. During my talk to hear I also came to realize that state visit which is

planned during the time of my internship is actually major and that it cannot be taken for

granted that I being only an ordinary student of relatively young age to come into a position to

take part that closely in such an event.

Thanks again for making all this happen.

All the best,

Christoph Pfeifer, B.A.

Export-oriented Management

Dear Anis,

since this trip more and more turns out to be a highly "sustainable" experience which heavily

impacts on both professional and every-day's life in a very positive manner, I would once

more like to express my sincere gratefulness that you made it possible for me to join this

journey. Having returned to Austria with this completely different Indonesian and Malaysian

world in mind, many things now are much simpler and more interesting than they seemed to

be before. Even my children are going to profit from this adventure by opening up their minds

and planning prospective foreign education. One of my insights is that especially Austrians

should start quitting their narrow minded approach towards the "rest of the world". Despite

Austria being a very delightful spot, from my point of view most Austrians (and especially

Austrian SME companies) still are too reluctant to establish prosperous foreign (SE-Asian)

relationships, which obviously are going to result in an economic and human backwardness.

Wherever I can, I will pronounce this sentence, in order to possibly wake up as many private

and business people as possible.

Bettina Pöll

Export-orientiertes Management

Dear Professor Anis,

I‘d once again like to thank you so much for taking me on this once-in-a-lifetime trip and for

everything else you did for me!! I have been telling everyone about the greatest professor I've

ever met ;). I am so excited about my forthcoming internship in the Austrian embassy in

Jakarta, and thank you for putting a trust on me.

Katrin Wabro, M.A.

106

Dear Prof. Anis,

I have already recovered from the jet lag and a mild cold I caught in KL.

Now it is time to say "Thank you" for your effort, time and enthusiasm.

I would like to express my honest gratitude for the great 2 weeks in Jakarta and KL.

I appreciate very much the fact that I had the opportunity to participate in the BFA 2010 trip.

Thank you so much for the great speakers you invited and also many thanks for being so

caring in terms of my ill leg in Jakarta.

With gratitude and appreciation,

All the best,

Libor Havelka, Export 2007

Dear Professor,

Now that I have had time to reflect and to digest about the BFA I really wanted to thank you

to make it happen. It was an extraordinary experience for me and it took me quite a lot of time

to really digest all the different impressions that we got during our trip. Because sometimes,

during the trip, we had such a full program that it was quite difficult to think everything over

and to think over everything properly. Having all these great speakers and memorable venues

and premises in which all our conferences were taking place was very impressive. During this

trip I realized ever than more that this is what I want to do in my future life – working for an

organization that actually is doing something important, that even can influence our whole

environment , thus the world that we live in. Sometimes it was hard for me to catch it all and

to actually realize how an important organization, like the ASEAN, is to practically all of us. I

think that is also the reason why it took my so long to digest this whole experience which

clearly imprints me inevitably and deeply.

So again I wanted to thank you for this unique experience.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Ashour EXP 2008

http://www.aseansec.org/24842.htm#Article-1 ;

http://www.unpar.ac.id/berita.php?cmd=view&id=20100701143454 ;

http://newspaper.pikiran-rakyat.com/prprint.php?mib=beritadetail&id=147235 ; http://www.pikiran-

rakyat.com/node/117225

107

Austrians Learn About ASEAN ASEAN Secretariat, 1 July 2010

A group of over 30 students from the University of Krems in Austria, came to the ASEAN Secretariat today to find out more about the dynamic region. The notion that “ASEAN is not presented and understood in the European Union” inspired the group coordinator, Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic, to design the visit to “close the knowledge gap”.

The students were welcomed by the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, Dato’ Misran Karmain, who delivered a briefing on the recent developments in ASEAN.

Conveying his best wishes to the participants, Dato’ Misran said, “I hope the study trip will enhance your knowledge on ASEAN and widen your network with the people in this region.”

The students were also briefed by Ambassador Julian Wilson, Delegation of the European Union to Indonesia and Timor-Leste and EU Ambassador to ASEAN, and Dr. Klaus Wölfer, Austrian Ambassador to Indonesia and to ASEAN. Among others, the Ambassadors spoke on ASEAN-EU relations and the importance of maintaining the close partnership.

The group was also briefed by the ASEAN Secretariat officials on each of the pillars of the ASEAN Community before taking part in a lively Q&A session.

The visit to the ASEAN Secretariat is part of an annual study trip where a group of students spend two weeks in two countries in a particular region and take part in academic lectures and study/cultural outdoor visits. They also meet experts, government officials and members of the royalty.

The students will leave Indonesia for Malaysia on 4 July and spend another week there.

108

14 ASEAN – related events organized at the IMC by prof. Anis

1. ASEAN Currents – Malaysian perspective

H.E. G.H. Haniff, Ambassador of Malaysia to Austria and Deputy S.I. bin Yaakob

Malaysian Embassy in Vienna

(Tour de Table Seminar for the EXP VI sem. students) Vienna, 03 APR 03

* Concept and Chairing

3. Japan and current political and economic situation in Pacific

Japanese Minister Mr. Kamiyama (Deputy Ambassador), Advisor Mr. Suzuki, First Secretary Mr.

Iguchi and Director of Japan’s Info-Cultural Center Mr. Toda

Japanese Embassy in Vienna http://www.at.emb-japan.go.jp/JHM022004/j_a2_022004.htm

(Tour de Table Seminar for the EXP V sem. students) Krems, 05 DEC 03

* Co-Concept and Chairing

12. India at Glance

H.E. Sheel Kant SHARMA, Ambassador of India to Austria

IMC Baroque Hall

(Speech & Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 04 APR 05

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

13. EU/Austria – Australian view

H.E. Ms. Deborah STOKES, Ambassador of Australia to Austria

IMC Baroque Hall

(Speech & Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 20 MAY 05

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

32. Japan in Asia - The current and future position of Japan in the region

H.E. Mr. Itaru UMEZU, Ambassador of Japan to Austria

IMC Baroque Hall

(Specially prepared speech for the EXP students &Tour de Table) Krems, 22 NOV 06

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

33. Korea: The current and future position of S. Korea in the EA region

H.E. Mr. KIM Sung-Hwan, Ambassador of Korea to Austria

IMC Baroque Hall http://www.fachhochschulen.at/News/Detail/1397.htm

(Specially prepared speech for the EXP students &Tour de Table) Krems, 17 JAN 07

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

52. The China’s role and positions in the Universal Organization of UN/SA

H.E. TANG Guoqiang, Ambassador Per-Rep. to the UN and other IOs in Vienna

IMC Baroque Hall http://www.imc-krems.ac.at/news-presse/news/2008/ambassador-tang-guoqiang

(Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 28 MAY 08

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

61. ASEAN/Asia series – the ASEAN Crises of ‘990s and the Malaysia’s currents

H.E. Mr. Mohd A.M. HUSSAIN, Ambassador of Malaysia to Austria and the Vienna-based IOs

IMC U – 2 http://www.fh-krems.ac.at/news-presse/news/2009/malaysia2019s-past-and-present-geopolitical-role-

in-asia-with-h-e-ambassador-arshad ; http://www.fachhochschulen.ac.at/en/news?&page=2 (Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 19 MAR 09

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

109

65. ASEAN/Asia series – Booming Indochina: opportunities/obstacles seen from the Vietnam perspective

H.E. Mr. Ba Than Nguyen, Amb. of the S.R. Viet Nam to Austria and the UN & Vienna IOs

IMC Baroque Hall http://www.newstin.com/tag/us/119069127

http://www.fh-krems.ac.at/news-and-press/news/2009/the-history-of-vietnam-with-h-e-ambassador-nguyen-ba-than

(Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 22 APR 09

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

72. ASEAN/Asia series: Challenges and opportunities ahead – the Philippines view

H.E. Ms. Linglingay F. LACANLALE, Amb. of the Philippines to Austria and Vienna-based IOs

IMC Baroque Hall

(Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 24 NOV 09

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

75. ASEAN/Asia series: Challenges and opportunities ahead – the Thailand’s view

H.E. Ms. Nongnuth Phetcharatana, Ambassador of Thailand to Austria and Vienna-based IOs

IMC Baroque Hall http://www.fh-krems.ac.at/news-presse/news/2010/ambassador-of-thailand-visited-fh-krems

(Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 17 MAR 10

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

79. ASEAN/Asia series: Indonesian development quest

H.E. Mr. Wesaka Puja, Ambassador of Indonesia to Austria and Vienna-based IOs

IMC Baroque Hall http://www.fh-krems.ac.at/news-and-press/news/2010/i-gusti-agung-wesaka-puja-ambassador-of-indonesia-to-austria-at-imc

(Tour de Table Seminar for the IMC faculty members) Krems, 13 OCT 10

* Concept, principal host and Chairing

110

15 Contact information

ASEAN – Association of Southeast

Asian Nations

Association of Southeast Asian Nation

Retno Astrini

Technical Officer

Security Cooperation Division

Political & Security Directorate

ASEAN Political & Security Community Department

Tel: +62 21 726 2991 Ext. 426

Fax: +62 21 739 8234, 724 3504

Email: retno.astrini@asean.org

Delegation of the European Union

to Indonesia and Brunei

www.delidn.ec.europa.eu

Mr. Jan-Willem Blankert

Special Adviser ASEAN

Delegation of the European Union to Indonesia and

Brunei Darussalam

Intiland Tower, 16th Floor, Jl. Jend. Sudirman 32,

Jakarta 10220

Tel: (62 21) 2554 6208

HP: 08118000475

Fax: (62 21) 2554 6201

Email: jan-willem.blankert@ec.europa.eu

Delegation of the European Union

to Malaysia

www.delmys.ec.europa.eu

Alessandro PAOLICCHI

Counsellor

Head of Section - Trade and Economic Relations

European Union

Delegation to Malaysia

Menara Tan & Tan, Suite 10.01 , 207 Jalan Tun

Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel: (+60-3) 2723 7373

Fax: (+60-3) 2723 7337

E-mail: alessandro.paolicchi@ec.europa.eu

Perdagangan Internasional

www.depdag.go.id

www.ditjenkpi.depdag.go.id

Mr. Gusmardi Bustami

Director Jenderai Kerjasama Perdagangan

Internasional

Gedung Utami, Lantai 8

Jalan M.I. Ridwan Rais No. 5

Jakarta Pusat 110

Tel: +62 21 2352 8600 pes. 36200, 36900

Fax:. +62 21 2352 8610

Email: djkpi@depdag.go.id,

gusmardi.bustami@depdag.go.id

gusmardi.bustami@ties.itu.int

111

Director of the Junior Diplomatic

Training Courses

Mr. Ben Perkasa Drajat

Director of the Junior Diplomatic Training Course,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Indonesia

Main Building, 2nd floor

73, Jl Sisingamangaraja

Jakarta Seletan 12120

Indonesia

Tel: 7250008-129, 3441508-8810, 7243752

Fax: (62-21) 7395746

Mobile: 081905223390

Email: bendrajat_1990@yahoo.com

UNPAR

Parahyangan Catholic University

www.unpar.ac.id

Mr. Christian C. Henry, SE., MBA.

Lecturer of Accounting Department at UNPAR,

Faculty of Economics

Jl. Ciumbuleuit 94, Bandung 40141 Jawa Barat,

Indonesia

Tel: 022-2041964 628

Fax: 022-2042571

Email: Christian.henry@home.unpar.ac.id

Ministry of Tourism

www.motour.gov.my/

Mohd Halimi Ibrahim

Under Secretary of International Affair Division,

Ministry of Tourism Malaysia

Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putry (PWTC)

45, Jalan Tun Ismail,

50695 Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia

Tel: +603-2696 3143 (DL)

+603-2693 7111

Fax: +603-2691 5723

E-Mail: halimi@motour.gov.my

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, KL MOHD. AZNOR MAHAT

Principal Assistant Secretary

Department of Info Public Diplomacy

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Wisma Putra

No.1, Jalan Wisma Putra

Precint 2, 62602 Putrajaya

Malaysia

Tel: 603-8887 4214

Fax: 603-8889 2720

Email: mdaznor@kln.gov.my

112

Ministry of International Trade

and Industry

www.miti.gov.my

Dato’Mukhriz Mahathir

Deputy Minister

Ministry of International Trade and Industry

15th Floor, Block 10

Government Offices Complex

Jalan Duta

50622 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Tel: +6 03-6201 1317

Fax: +6 03-6201 7346

Email: mukhrizm@miti.gov.my

Außenhandelsstelle Jakarta, WKO

www.wko.at/awo/id

Mag. Herwig Neuper

Der Stellvertretende Handelsdelegierte für Indonesien

Außenhandelsstelle Jakarta

Austrian Embassy – Commercial Section

Menara Kadin, 19th Fl., Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Blok X-

5, Kav. 2 & 3

Jakarta 12950 – Indonesia

Tel: +62 21 2550 0186

Fax: +62 21 527 4707

Email: Jakarta@wko.at

Außenhandelsstelle KL, WKO

http://wko.at/awo

Dr. Franz Schröder

Österreichischer Handelsdelegierter für Malaysia und

Brunei

Suite 14.1, Level 14, Menara IMC, No. 8, Jalan

Sultan Ismail

5020 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Tel: +60 3 20322830

Fax: +60 3 20323130

Email: kualalumpur@wko.at

The Habibie Center

http://www.habibiecenter.or.id

Ms. Rahimah Abdulrahim

Program I& Public Relations Manager

The Habibie Center Building

Jl. Kemang Selatan No. 98 – Jakarta 12560 –

Indonesia

Tel: (62-21) 7817211 – Fax: (62-21) 7817212

Email: ima@habibiecenter.co.id

imaabdul@gmail.com

Dean Yulindra Affandi

ASEAN Study Program Coordinator

113

The Habibie Center Building

Jl. Kemang Selatan No. 98 – Jakarta 12560 –

Indonesia

Phone: (62-21) 7817211 – Fax: (62-21) 7817212

Email: daffandi@habibiecenter.co.id

imaabdul@gmail.com

Dr. Ir. Fuad Rasyid, MSc

Director For Administrative Affairs

The Habibie Center Building

Jl. Kemang Selatan No. 98 – Jakarta 12560 –

Indonesia

Tel: (62-21) 7817211 – Fax: (62-21) 7817212

Email: fuadi@habibiecenter.or.id

KADIN Business Support Desk Mr. David Parsons

KADIN Business Support Desk

Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Policy & Research

Tel: +62 21 527 4503 ext. 102

+62 812 1068 166

Email: david@parsons-asia.com

City Council Melaka www.mbmb.gov.my

Director of Urban Planning

Mr. Hj. Mansor Sudin,

Graha Makmur, No.1,

Lebuh Ayer Keroh,

75450 Melaka, Malaysi

Tel: +606 285 9848

Fax: +606-232-5716

Email: mansor@mbmb.gov.my.

Contact number 0196555561

Austrian Embassy to Malaysia H.E. Ambassador Andrea Wicke

Austrian Embassy

Wisma Goldhill

Suite 10.01-02, Level 10

67, Jalan Raja Chulan

50200 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Tel: 03-20570020

Fax: 03-23817768

Email: kualalumpur@bmeia.gv.at

114

Austrian Embassy to Indonesia

www.aussenministerium.at/bangkok

H.E. Dr. Klaus Wölfer

Ambassador of Austria

Austrian Embassy Indonesia

Jalan Terusan Denpasar Raya (Jalan H. R. Rasuna

Said Kav. X/3 N° 1, Kuningan),

Jakarta Selatan 12950

Tel. (+62/21) 25 93 037-40 (Ms. Sri)

Fax: (+62/21) 52 92 06 51

Institute of Diplomacy and

Foreign Relations

www.idfr.gov.my

H.E. Ambassador Abdullah Faiz Zain, Senior

Director

Institute of Diplomacy & Foreign Relations

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Jalan Wisma Putra

50460 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel: + (603) 2149 1102

Fax: + (603) 2144 9197

Email: faiz@idfr.gov.my

Parliament Malaysia

http://www.parlimen.gov.my/

Parliament Malaysia

Parliament Malaysia, Bangunan Parlimen,

50680 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 603-20721955

Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Minister of

Higher Education

Email: saifuddin61@yahoo.com

Fong Po Kuan, Member of the Malaysian Parliament

Email: pkfongz@yahoo.com

Rosnah Hj Abd Rashid Shirlin, Deputy Minister of

Health

Email: RosnahShirlin@yahoo.com

115

16 Credits

Final draft of the report Androsevic, Trauner, Wabro

Photos Froschauer, Hanke, Maurina

Country Info Indonesia Karl

Country Info Malaysia Wolf

Monday, 28th June Plewa, Sturm

Tuesday, 29th June Havelka, Ulreich

Wednesday, 30th June Ashour, Weber

Thursday, 1st July Laisy, Liu

Saturday, 3rd July Pfeifer, Reimann

Monday, 5th July Dennig, Schmickel

Tuesday, 6th July Buchmayr, Krainer

Wednesday, 7th July Pöll, Tiang-Nga

Thursday, 8th July Irndorfer, Kahr, Wimmer

Friday, 9th July Bisinger, Herko

116

Dubai Airport 22

Jakarta, city lights 23

117

Jakarta, street-life 24

Bandung, Tea-fields smile 25

118

Jakarta, Jazz that sreeet, jazz ‘em all... 26

Every morning something to report, prof. Anis Bajrektarevic listens to debriefing 27

119

Volcano road, BFA crew and prof. Bajrektarevic 28

Jakarta, Scene from the Theatrical performance, great joy before meeting the actors back-stage 29

120

Jakarta, Reception at the Residence of Austrian Ambassador, prof. Anis Bajrektarevic Mrs. Ambassador and Us 30

Jakarta, Reception at the Residence of A. Amb., Falk-dance performance kindly organized by Amb. Wölfer for us 31

121

Diplomatic Academy of Indonesia, Consul Swoboda, MFA host and prof. Anis Bajrektarevic 32

Bandung, Reception at the Residence of H.C. Eddy, exchange of presents with prof. Bajrektarevic 33

122

Diplomatic Academy of Indonesia, Director David Parsons and his KADIN team, deputy EU Delegation Head Mr.

Blankert and prof. Anis Bajrektarevic 34

Jakarta, ASEAN HQ – group photo 35

123

Jakarta, Diplomatic Academy – opening with Consul Swoboda, hosts and prof. Anis Bajrektarevic 36

Kuala Lumpur, Parliament’s Senat Room, prof. Anis Bajrektarevic, Oposition leader Ms. F.P. Kuan, Minister Deputy

of Higher Education Mr. S. Abdullah and BFA team 37

124

Collections of famous Malaysian butterflies, City Lake Garden Park, Kuala Lumpur 38

Kuala Lumpur, MATIC, Theatrical folk-dance show for the BFA participants 39

125

Kuala Lumpur, Treaty Room IDFR, prof. Anis Bajrektarevic during his Opening Statement 40

Reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, Putrajaya HQ 41

126

Minister Deputy, Dr. M. Mahathir welcoming the BFA participants and prof. Anis Bajrektarevic, IDFR-Treaty

Room, Kuala Lumpur 42

Reception at the MFA of Malaysia, Putrajaya HQ – Mr. Erwin Ulreich addresses the audience in Bahasa 43

127

Business Focus ASEAN 2010

Family photo of the BFA 2 participants with Deputy Minister Dr. Mahathir, IDFR’s Senior Director Amb. Faiz,

Director Vasudiwan and prof. Anis Bajrektarevic Wisma Putra – IDFR, 08 JUL 20110 44