BaBA – Our History
In 2006, a new initiative with the objective of nurturing future leaders of Asia was introduced. Called the “Building A Better Asia: Young Leaders’ Retreat,” this joint project of the Nippon Group of Foundations, Peking University and the Information & Resource Center/Asian Dialogue Society was aimed at building a better future for the citizens of Asia. IRC/ADS organised these retreats.
This retreat programme brought together a select group of past beneficiaries from the people exchange and human resource development projects in Asian countries of The Nippon Foundation Group. The purpose initially was to encourage the continuous interactions among those who were from the same projects, or by creating new links and enhancing relationships among those from different projects.
An academic committee comprising scholars and experts from various Asian countries was formed to supervise this programme.
Between September 2006 when the first retreat was hosted in Peking University 9 retreats have been held (three more at Peking University and two in India (Goa and Orissa), one in ASEAN (Bangkok), and the ninth held in Nara, Japan. Participants from various Asian countries spent a week interacting with one another and were given opportunities to meet well-known scholars, political and business leaders. There were also out-of- classroom activities. The discussions were aimed at deepening the participants’ knowledge of a set of emerging issues in Asia and to foster the art of leadership in problem solving. In addition, group work for the purpose of enhancing long-lasting relationships among the participants was encouraged.
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