An Invitation to the 2012 Education Forum for Asia Annual Conference

Sep. 21 -23, 2012, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, P. R. China

 It is our great pleasure to cordially invite you to participate in the 2012 Education Forum for Asia Annual Conference, which will be held from September 21-23, 2012 in Chengdu city in the support of Ministry of Education of China. This year’s event will be hosted by Boao Forum for Asia, UNESCO and the Government of Sichuan Province, and will be organized by Chengdu Municipal Government, Sichuan Expo Bureau, Educational Department of Sichuan Province and the Education Forum for Asia Organizing Committee. An historical Memoir providing background information on the Forum is enclosed for your reference.

The Education Forum of Asia was created with the vision of promoting a more relevant, more dynamic, and higher quality of education in Asia. Among its goals the forum works towards improving access to basic education and educational opportunities for disadvantaged children across the region. Through the identification and development of lifelong learning and other educational opportunities the forum seeks to assist populations adjust to the rapidly changing work environment. The idea for Education Forum for Asia was hatched in the autumn of 2002. The China Scholarship Council and Boao Forum for Asia joined with UNESCO to collaborate on developing a conference focused on international education and the development of global talent and human resources in the Asian region. In cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Education, all three organizations worked to further develop these ideas into the creation of an education forum. Now, through 9 years of continuous efforts, the Education Forum for Asia has established itself as an organization with international recognition and influence, particularly in education. It has been working towards achieving its mission of "Building Bridges for Asia Education".

With the progress of the National Strategy for Western Development and the continuous and healthy development of Chengdu’s economy, more and more national ambassadors’ offices, top 500 global enterprises, foreign fund enterprises and financial organizations are beginning to take root in Chengdu. More relationships between internationally friendly cities are being established, thus transforming Chengdu into an internationally renowned city. Chengdu Municipal Government has recently put forward a strategy to carry out education internationalization in order to make Chengdu’s education more internationally open, to effectively arrange and employ global education resources, to improve the level of international communication and cooperation in Chengdu‘s education system, and to make local education better suited to the needs of Chengdu’s economic and social development. Under this strategic initiative to build a modern idyllic city, our goal is to develop a world class education system within Chengdu.

With the view to further strengthen the previous achievements, the 2012 Annual conference will bring together nearly 600 guests, both from China and abroad, including forum initiators, former politicians, educational officials, ambassadors and counselors, representatives of international organizations and foundations, educators, experts and representatives from educational institutions, and business leaders. The theme is “Asia Education: Towards a More Prosperous and Better Future.” It will also have six parallel meetings, namely: basic education, vocational education, higher education, qualified Asian teachers, international exchange and cooperation of Asian education, and accelerating the internationalization process of education in Chengdu.

In addition, the 7th Asian Student’s Photography Exhibition, which is jointly organized by Education Forum for Asia, China Youth Daily and China University Media Union and Chengdu Municipal Bureau, will be held during the conference period.

We greatly look forward to your participation. Please send the RSVP form (see the following appendix) to Education Forum for Asia before August 10th so that timely preparations can be made for your attendance at the 2012 Education Forum for Asia Annual Conference. We hope that we can work together to build bridges for Asian education.

Yao Wang                               
Secretary General of Education Forum for Asia

GeHonglin
Mayor of the People’s Government of Chengdu City

Click here to visite 2012 Education Forum for Asia Annual Conference website.