Sunway University hosted the 4th Southeast Asian Studies Symposium from 20 to 22 March 2015, the first to be held outside the University of Oxford. The Sultan of Perak, H.R.H Sultan Nazrin Shah, an alumnus of the University of Oxford delivered a royal keynote address at the event. His Royal Highness is also the Royal Patron of the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia (JCI), the host of the Symposium. The Symposium themed “The Year of ASEAN: Integrating Southeast Asia” was also the first public event held at the New University Building.
The Symposium was the highlight of a week of intense intellectual discourse and discussions with global thinkers and thought leaders comprising academics, business, political and civil society leaders coming together to address Southeast Asia’s most important challenges. Sunway University and JCI kicked-off the week-long celebration, with a Training Workshop for Achieving Excellence in Malaysian Universities on 17 March, which was attended by 200 participants.
The Symposium aimed to present inter-disciplinary transnational solutions to contemporary Southeast Asian issues; provided opportunity for dialogues and networking among academic, business, political and civil society leaders from Europe and Southeast Asia; and acted as a platform for emerging and established scholars to demonstrate their latest research on Southeast Asia.
The highly anticipated royal keynote address by the Sultan of Perak, officiated the three-day Symposium with the attendance of some of the world’s top academicians. Professor Wang Gungwu CBE, Chairman of East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, delivered the keynote lecture. Professor Wang is a prominent historian of Asia, whose opinion is often sought after by researchers from around the world.
The opening plenary ‘Key Challenges for Asia in the 21st Century (Part I)’ was chaired by Professor Graeme Wilkinson, Vice-Chancellor of Sunway University. The speakers for the session included Professor Arthur Kleinman, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Medical Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Psychiatry at Harvard University and Professor Yoon Young-Kwan, Seoul National University's Department of International Relations.
The Part II session, chaired by Professor Woo Wing Thye, President of the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia and Research Professor at Sunway University, featured Professor Dwight Perkins, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and Professor Kiyohiko Nishimura, Dean of the Graduate School of Economics and Chairman of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo.
Chancellor of Sunway University, Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah, AO, in his welcome remarks, said hosting the Symposium is a step in the direction of his personal vision and purpose to give to society through high quality and globally-recognised standards of education. He added that hosting a symposium of international repute at Sunway University, where academic researchers from different intellectual disciplines from around the world gather to discuss broad ranging current issues affecting the development of Southeast Asia is aligned to that purpose.
“The Symposium will enable our local researchers to engage with eminent scholars from around the world. I hope to see more of this two-way exchange of scholars and researchers with world-renowned institutions of higher learning at Sunway to develop a vibrant and thriving education hub of excellence,” said Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah, who is also the Founding Trustee of the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation (JCF), which owns and governs Sunway University.
In conjunction with the Symposium, Sunway University also hosted the Asian Economic Panel conference (AEP) from 23 to 24 March, bringing in former lawmakers in Southeast Asian countries together on one platform. The conference was chaired by President of JCI, Professor Woo Wing Thye with distinguished panellists Dr Mari Pangestu, Former Minister of Trade, Indonesia; Dr Chalongphob Sussangkarn, Former Minister of Finance, Thailand, and Former President of Thailand Development Research Institute and Dr Muhammad Chatib Basri, Former Minister of Finance, Indonesia.
Themed “Slower growth in Southeast Asia: What is to be done?” the AEP had some 40 economists from around the world to discuss issues concerning sub-regions of Asia or individual Asian countries.
Sunway University also hosted the world’s top academicians under the Jeffrey Cheah Distinguished Speakers Series (JCDSS). The JCDSS seeks to give the community and the public an opportunity to listen to outstanding experts speak on a variety of issues, whilst providing a platform for intellectual discourse and lifelong learning. It featured a line-up of intellectual heavyweights in diverse fields: Professor Nick Rawlins, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Development and External Affairs and Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Oxford; Professor Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley and Professorial Fellow, Gonville & Caius, University of Cambridge, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Earth Institute, Professor of Economics and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University.
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