Chairman, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to thank the Government of Lao PDR for the cordial welcome and the perfect organisation of the 9th Asian-Europe Meeting. It is a great pleasure and honour for me to represent Switzerland – together with the President of the Swiss Confederation – at this Meeting.
Our world is facing many global challenges. It is our common responsibility to find solutions for the pressing problems of our world.
Science and education can and must play a major role to solve those problems. And moreover: cooperation in science and education allow our nations and our continents to overcome social and cultural barriers and to strengthen our friendship through concrete and useful cooperation.
An effective education system should be based on three pillars:
1) on free and universal access to primary education;
2) on good and affordable secondary education and vocational training;
3) and on nationally and internationally well connected academic institutions.
Educational and scientific cooperation is a bridge, a bridge between cultures and it brings together our societies. Exchanges between professors and students facilitate the mutual understanding of society and culture. Friendship between students boosts our societal and cultural ties. We are convinced that it is very important to build such bridges between young people.
This is the case in Switzerland, where the extraordinary commitment of public and private actors to high quality education and science is an important prerequisite for the country’s place at the top of various global innovation rankings.
On the one hand, Swiss universities perform very well and are regularly cited among the best institutions worldwide. This success is due to the fact that the system is based on the principle of academic excellence: only the best research projects are supported, political aspects play no role in the process.
On the other hand the Swiss vocational training system produces good results in terms of integrating young people into the labor market. The best indicator for the success of the system is the low unemployment rate among young people – actually at around 3.5% - the lowest in Europe.
Switzerland is willing to share its experience and its know-how in this field. An example is the Center for Vocational Training in Yangon. Our government will support this Swiss private initiative beginning next year with the aim to build an exemplary center – a blueprint for other projects. And the contact between Swiss experts and professors and apprentices from Myanmar brings our societies closer together.
Ladies and gentlemen
There is no isolated answer to global trends such as climate change or shortage of water, food and energy, to name just a few. To tackle these issues, individual and collective efforts to strengthen our capacity in education, research and innovation are fundamental. If our best students work together to solve global problems, strong ties between our cultures and societies will be created.
This is exactly what researchers from Singapore, from the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich ETH and from other countries do at the Singapore ETH-Center for Global Environmental Sustainability. They use their different cultural backgrounds and their common scientific knowledge to develop together advanced techniques in urban design, computer science, social science, digital modeling and simulation to develop the cities of the future and propose solutions for environmental sustainability in the new urban context.
There is an obvious need for strong scientific evidence if we want to solve global problems effectively. Science provides the arguments that help us to decide on political strategies that are sustainable and integrated rather than short-sighted and isolated. And cultural exchanges through science allow thinking in new and unconventional ways; and that means scientific progress. Education and science are critical factors for a more sustainable development and for a better cultural understanding.
For Switzerland, international cooperation in the field of education and science is a cornerstone of its strategy – from a scientific point of view as well as from a cultural one. And in this context the educational and scientific co-operation with Asia is of the utmost importance for us. Three of the five Swiss official representations exclusively devoted to scientific, technological and cultural exchange – Swissnex – are located in Asian cities, Bangalore, Shanghai and Singapore. Switzerland has also signed bilateral agreements on scientific co-operation and exchange with various countries present here: China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Russia.
Switzerland launched the Swiss Program for Research on Global Issues for Development earlier this year. It aims to reduce poverty and global risks in poor countries and it supports partnership-based projects between researchers from Switzerland and developing countries.
Its thematic focus is on social conflicts, employment, agricultural production systems and food security, the sustainable use and management of eco-systems, and finally, financing mechanisms in the public health sector. Also here scientific-based cooperation can help to reduce social and cultural gaps.
Another example for our cooperation is “l’initiative CMELL” - or in English the “MOOCS-initiative” - launched together with the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne EPFL a month ago at the Ministerial Conference of the “Organisation internationale de la Francophonie”.
Young students from development countries will have the possibility to follow internet courses of top universities – in their language, in the mentioned case French. Education brings cultures, societies and our continents closer together; some ASEM-countries are also members of the Francophonie. These young and well educated students will build their future, the future of their countries and our common future.
A third milestone in strengthening our educational, scientific and cultural co-operation was reached this year. There was a notable increase in the number of potential beneficiaries of Swiss government scholarships. As a result, graduates from more than 160 countries can now apply for doctoral or postdoctoral research scholarships in Switzerland. Both, the country of origin and the host country, benefit from the cultural enrichment of such a presence. It’s another powerful instrument to build cultural and societal bridges.
All these measures and programs clearly show that Switzerland is a strong supporter of international co-operation in science and education as a means of developing
- a common understanding about global challenges;
- ways of tackling urgent societal problems;
- and a better cultural and social understanding.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I believe that the Asia-Europe Meeting is the right place to discuss and improve our social and cultural cooperation, especially in the field of education and science. I am confident that together we can work towards the resolution of some of the most pressing issues.