The 45th Board of Governors’ Meeting (BoG45) of Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) concluded today at the Indonesian beach city Bali pledging commitment by the Board of Governors to support ASEF’s initiatives for reinvigorating partnership between continent Asia and Europe. The ASEF BoG45 is chaired by the Governor of Bangladesh to ASEF Mr. Md. Rais Hasan Sarower, ndc who was unanimously elected as Chair of ASEF Board of Governors (2024) last year during the 44th BOGs held in Barcelona, Spain.
During the BOGs meeting the Governors elected the candidate from Poland Ambassador Beata Stoczynska as the next Executive Director of ASEF and the candidate from China Mr ZHANG Lei as the Deputy Executive Director and the Vice Chair from European Union. The new management will lead the organization for the next four years with a focus on reshaping the relations between Europe and Asia through undertaking a good number of projects and implementing 3-year Strategy of ASEF (July 2023 – June 2026). The BOGs Meeting was preceded by the Nominating Committee Meeting, Finance and Audit Committee Meeting and the Executive Committee Meeting.
Asia Europe Foundation, an intergovernmental non-profit organization was established in 1997. At present, under the ASEF platform, 31 European countries, 20 Asian countries and 2 regional organisations (the European Union and the ASEAN Secretariat) are working together. ASEF runs a number of projects covering seven broad themes: environment, arts and culture, human rights and governance, economy, public health, education, and intercommoned dialogue. Bangladesh became a member of ASEF in 2012 and has been contributing meaningfully over the years for the growth of this organization. This year, a project namely ‘Strengthening Preparedness and Response to the COVID-19 and Other Emerging Infections Diseases’ funded by Government of Japan through Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and supported by Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was launched in Bangladesh. The 46th ASEFBOG meeting is scheduled to be held from 26-27 June 2025 in Kraków, Poland.