Building an Asia Pacific Knowledge Bank
21 - 24 October, Peking University, Beijing
From the Second Track Dialogues held 28 March 2009, one main question was selected that best articulated the connection between innovation and cooperation: How, as a region, can we best share knowledge and communicate that knowledge effectively across geopolitical boundaries? A subsidiary question that arose from the Dialogue was: What scaffolding is required to share knowledge and to build the requisite knowledge infrastructure of the 21st century in our region?
The Emerging Leaders dialogue further explored this issue with the objective of ‘Creating a model of an Asian Knowledge Bank’. Participants were asked to focus on how, as a region, we might be able to build an Asia-Pacific Knowledge Bank as a supranational, collaborative structure using a Future Scenario-Building Method. This structure would facilitate the flow of knowledge internationally, bringing sustainable economic and social benefits to the Asia-Pacific Community and the global community at large.
A welcome dinner was hosted by Peking University where Peking University Assistant President and Director of the International Relations Office Yansong Li , Professor Michael Dutton and Shen Yang, Deputy Director-General Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges from the Ministry of Education welcomed the students.
The Dialogue was officially opened on the morning of the 22nd October by Mr Iain Watt, Minister Counsellor Education, Australian Embassy and Professor Liu Shusen, Deputy Dean of the School of Foreign Languages.
A diverse group of 30 PHD students from Australian, Chinese and regional universities applied the skills they have developed in their PHD area to a new area of problem-solving and model creating. The broad range of disciplines represented at the Dialogue enabled the participants to consider the topic from multiple perspectives, enriching the outcome.
Students discussed the future of sharing knowledge across the region, coming up with various models for an ‘Asia-Pacific Knowledge Bank’, including Knowledge Space (K-Space): People Building Knowledge Together and the “Self Adapting Knowledge Tree’ models and a charter.
One of the key aims of the Emerging Leaders Dialogue is to instil forward thinking among our future leaders while at the same time creating an opportunity for a professional and personal link between our regions future leaders to develop.