AN international event will take place in the provincial capital of Makassar in South Sulawesi next 9-11 September 2015: ASEAN Mayors Forum (AMF). This event will be co-hosted by Makassar City Government and United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC).
To socialize this international event, a road-show to embassies of ASEAN nations in Jakarta was performed since early June. A small entourage of UCLG ASPAC led by its Secretary General paid a courtesy visit to the Laotian Ambassador for Indonesia H.E. Kouily A. Souphakhet.
Lao PDR Ambassador H.E. Souphakhet said that the AMF 2015 is expected to become a new hub for Laotian cities to ink new relationship and cooperation with other cities across ASEAN nations. This is important, he added, to prepare the ASEAN Economic Community which has been officially scheduled to happen by next December 2015.
Another courtesy visit was performed by UCLG ASPAC to Singaporean Embassy in Jakarta on 5 June 2015. During the meeting with UCLG ASPAC’s entourage, Singaporean Embassy’s First Secretary Mr. Benedict Luo reiterated the importance of AMF 2015 in Makassar, South Sulawesi Province. He said that Singapore had participated the previous event in Surabaya in 2011 where representatives from South East District Singapore were present in the AMF 2011 in Surabaya.
He said that Singapore would certainly support the upcoming event of AMF 2015, adding that this international forum would be as significant as expected to become a forum for knowledge and best-practices sharing among local governments in ASEAN nations.
The same support was also said by Myanmar Ambassador for Indonesia H.E. UMin Lwin. He said that the next AMF 2015 would be a good forum where issues of cities and local governments in ASEAN nations could be discussed among mayors and district chiefs so that institutional arrangements can be made within the social-cultural foundations. (DS)
