Co-hosted by the Goethe-Institut in Hanoi, the EUNIC regional seminar for clusters in the Asia-Pacific region brought together representatives from 16 of the 18 clusters in the region: Australia, Bangladesh, Beijing, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kansai, Kolkata, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Delhi, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tokyo, and Vietnam.

The seminar also involved colleagues from the EU Delegation to Vietnam, external experts in the fields of cultural relations between Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as in multilateral collaboration such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European External Action Service (EEAS), and key local cultural and civil society stakeholders from Hanoi.

Over two days, the seminar offered participants the opportunity to get to know and learn from each other, share experiences and challenges of working in the framework of EUNIC clusters, to explore current developments in the region and common topics of interst as well and opportunties for future collaboration.

With an introduction to Asia-Europe Foundation's recently published report on the 'Culture 360: Recalibrating the Compass' initiative, participants explored recent developments in the region's contemporary cultural landscape, shared relevant topics and opportunities for strengthened cooperation with ASEF.

For organisations like ASEF it’s great to be here and explore opportunities of collaboration in the context of Asia and Europe. There are a lot of things we can do together and I’m glad to be here to discuss this with everyone.

Valentina Riccardi, ASEF, Head of Culture Department

Building on EUNIC's Not a toolkit! Fair collaboration in cultural relations, colleagues discussed potential dilemmas when collaborating internationally, exchanged on core values crucial in teamwork, and analysed a recent project using the Fairness Checker.

An online intervention by the EU's special envoy to the Indo-Pacific region allowed to open the floor to discussions about EUNIC's partnership with the EU. Additionally, presentations by colleagues from the ASEAN secretariat and the ASEAN Foundation outlined perspectives for deepend collaboration between ASEAN and Europe, specifically through EUNIC.

Its a privilege to be here to share ASEAN's perspectives on a number of potential collaborations in the culture sector with EUNIC. This includes areas such as the preseravation, promotion and protection of cultural heritage, the promotion of the creative economy as well as emphasising the nexus between the role of culture in social, sustainable and inclusive developments.

Jonathan Tan, ASEAN Secretariat, Head Culture & Information Division

Finally, the seminar was also an opportunity to take a look inwards at the network itself, for colleagues to learn about other opportunities to get involved with the global network, to hear about recent projects implemented by clusters in the region and about ongoing and upcoming funding opportunities such as European Spaces for Culture and the EUNIC Cluster Fund 2023.

I got a better understanding of what the other clusters do and how, what their challenges are and how they tackle them. I think we can learn a lot from each other, and we're often facing similar challenges. The information shared was quite concrete and thus useful for the daily work in the cluster. It gave concrete ideas of what can be done.

Anonymous, from participant evaluation

Find more detailed information about the regional seminar in this final report