[L-R] Newly elected President of the First ASEAN University Student Council Union, Mr. Derrick Ordonez, with Philippine Permanent Representative to ASEAN, Ambassador Elizabeth P. Buensuceso.
March 2017 - The First ASEAN University Student Council Union Conference held on 13-21 March 2017 in Hiroshima and Tokyo, Japan elected Mr. John Derrick Ordonez, student of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), as its first President. Other new officers of the Student Council Union hail from Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand. As President, Derrick is expected to represent all ASEAN youth to the ASEAN Council, including leading in the formulation of programs and activities of the students in the Union.
The Conference, supported by the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youth (JENESYS), is one of the activities commemorating the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN and seeks to promote leadership, peace-building, cross-cultural understanding and appreciation of the ASEAN Community. It welcomed over 140 university students from ASEAN Member States and Japan, and focused on a theme of ‘peace and youth leadership in ASEAN and beyond.’
In her keynote address, Ambassador Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to ASEAN, stressed the “need for the youth to find common issues to unite them despite their diversity just as the Founding Fathers of ASEAN did in 1967.” Under the Philippine Chairmanship of ASEAN and its six thematic priorities, special attention is given to the youth and other vulnerable groups to ensure that ASEAN continues to strengthen its people-oriented and people-centered approaches in pursuit of common goals.
JENESYS is the flagship programme on the ASEAN-Japan cooperation on youth. Established in 2007, JENESYS aims to enable solidarity within the region through large-scale youth exchanges.
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