People, Peace and Planet in 2030 - Shaping Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

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Nov 20, 2013
by Louise Hallman
People, Peace and Planet in 2030 - Shaping Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

Aspiring leaders gather in Japan for a “Salzburg-style” seminar looking to turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities

Daigo-ji, Kyoto - Participants will spend four days in Kyoto before travelling to Tokyo (Photo: Flickr - hira3)

Turning today’s challenges into tomorrow’s challenges is the main task that aspiring, young leaders are facing around the world. Financial crises, climate change, environmental disasters, regional conflicts and disputes, energy and resource insecurity, a growing and aging population… The list of challenges facing this current incoming generation of leaders is vast and expanding.

It is against this backdrop of a world in flux that this weekend sees 30 specially selected “rising leaders” in the areas of public administration and policy, academia, non-governmental development organizations, business, and the arts, travel from across the world to Japan for a “Salzburg-style seminar” – the first of its kind outside of Schloss Leopoldskron.

The 30 Fellows, led by an expert faculty, including Surin Pitsuwan, the former Secretary-General of ASEAN, will convene in Kyoto on November 24. There, they will develop their scenarios for 2030 around the issues of regional co-operation, energy and resource security, and innovation and equity in ageing societies.

These challenges face many regions of the world, no less so Japan, which is still dealing with the fallout of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in March 2011 and the resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster, as well as flagging economic growth and a rapidly ageing population.

Representing 14 countries on five continents, the Fellows will consider how a better architecture for regional and global multilateral governance can be developed to tackle the increasingly interconnected challenges the world faces; how Asia and the world can bring their economic and demographic growth in line with regional and global environmental limits; and how to deal with the prospect that Asia might grow old before it becomes rich.

After four days in Kyoto, the Fellows will travel to the Japanese capital and international commerce, technology and culture hub, Tokyo, to present their scenarios at a public forum.

As well as hearing these innovative solutions to these pressing global problems, the public forum will also feature a panel discussion, led by a keynote speech delivered by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, chair of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission of the National Diet of Japan, and moderated by Aiko Doden, senior international affairs commentator for Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK.

The forum will be followed by a reception for all participants and Salzburg Global Fellows living and working in Japan at the residence of the Austrian Ambassador, hosted by His Excellency, the Austrian Ambassador, Dr. Bernard Zimburg.

The seminar and forum are being held in Japan to mark 25 years of cooperation between Salzburg Global Seminar and the Nippon Foundation.

“Salzburg Global Seminar is excited to be holding its first full seminar in Asia to commemorate our 25-year partnership with the Nippon Foundation,” said Salzburg Global President and CEO Stephen Salyer.

“Drawing on over 65 years of experience in convening up-and-coming and imaginative thinkers, this ‘Salzburg-style’ seminar will give youthful voices in the region a chance to join an intergenerational dialogue and convey their visions for a shared global future, in which they will inevitably play a large part.”


For daily updates from the seminar in Kyoto and public forum in Tokyo, read our website and follow the Twitter hashtag #SGSjapan. We will also be uploading interview podcasts to our SoundCloud stream and photos to our Facebook page.

Press wishing to attend the public forum should contact: Louise Hallman, Editor, Salzburg Global Seminar at: lhallman@salzburgglobal.org or via Skype: louisehallman