A JUNIOR Medicine student will represent the University in a Japan-led forum this month on economic growth of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Jan Joel Simpauco is one of the country's only four student delegates in the upcoming 12th Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative (HYLI) in Bangkok, Thailand.
With the theme "The Road Ahead: ASEAN's Role in Asia and the Global Economy," the forum on July 1 to 5 will address "regional economic and social infrastructure issues" in the region.
Simpauco, who placed eighth in the July 2011 Nurse Licensure Examination, is the only delegate with a medical background among the four Filipino representatives taking up business or economic courses.
Simpauco said he will seek to represent the medical sector and raise issues pertinent to the sector in the Asean.
"I focus on healthcare,” he said. “I know most of them (the Asean delegates) would focus on international policies, but I have my experience during fieldwork as a nurse. My advocacy is health empowerment.”
Only the students with excellent academic and extra-curricular track records are chosen to be part of the forum.
Simpauco will join Business students Wesly Paul Cortez and Francis Karunungan of University of the Philippines-Diliman and Economics student Ira Gayll Zamudio of De La Salle University.
Only four students are chosen by HYLI in each of the seven participating Asian countries, with a total of 28 delegates every year. The countries included in the Asian forum which started in 1996 are Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Japan.
According to Hitachi information materials, HYLI is a community relations program that “aims to identify and nurture potential Asian leaders by bringing them together to discuss regional issues and foster relationships with government officials, business leaders, and non-government organization representatives.”
The forum, which is held every 18 months, offers the delegates a “unique platform to broaden their outlook on regional and global issues while promoting Asian values and cross-cultural understanding.”
HYLI aims to train and improve the potential of future Asian leaders through tackling regional and global issues in preparation for the Asian Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
One of the speakers of the forum is Ronaldo Tungpalan, deputy director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority.
Tungpalan will talk about his study titled “The ASEAN Economic Community 2015: What Can ASEAN Really Expect and Asia’s Significance in the Global Community” and “Connectivity: The Driver of ASEAN competitiveness.”
