Harvard, Trisakti seminar begins

Harvard, Trisakti seminar begins

JAKARTA (JP): More than 100 students from 13 countries are expected to gather here beginning today to discuss development issues and to strengthen mutual understanding under the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations.

The conference, which Harvard University jointly organized with Trisakti University, will try to avoid "sensitive" and "political" issues, said Mark Wu, Chairman of the organizing committee from Harvard University.

The three-day conference will carry the theme Sustaining the Miracle: Challenges Facing Asian Development and will consist mainly of commission workshops discussing economic development strategies, foreign aid and infrastructure development, legal and institutional development, the environment, women and development and population and health issues.

Lectures which will be conducted by various government officials and academic experts will also discuss the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum as well as deregulation and development policies.

Wu, accompanied by the committee's President David Feldman, said that although the issues discussed would be focused on cooperation and mutual understanding, he was aware that "political" and "sensitive" issues would be unavoidable.

"The conference is not intended to promote a certain ideology, or to dictate a concept, but we feel it is important for students to be open to others' ideology...Our view is not to determine whether this is right or wrong, but to find out why there are different opinions," he said.

The focus on cooperation, he said, is needed "to make sure that we don't make the same fall as our leaders when we become leaders in the future".

Indonesia was chosen as host country -- outdoing South Korea's bid -- because holding the conference in a developing country would ensure that delegates received first-hand information, he said.

Feldman said that the conference does not aim at producing a formal resolution since the topics discussed would not allow the delegates to consider whether a development policy was "right" or "wrong" or whether something else was better.

This is the fourth conference of its kind, with the first held in 1992 in Japan. Participants who have confirmed their attendance are from Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, the Netherlands and Austria. (pwn)