Asia–Europe Meeting’s 20th anniversary
ASEM 1996–2016: 20 yEArS of diAloguE And coopErAtion
c o m p a c t g u i d E S
The Asia-Europe Meeting celebrates 20 years of dialogue and cooperation
The first ASEM Summit was held on 1-2 March 1996. It marked the start of a process that engaged both regions in dialogue and cooperation on political, economic and socio-cultural issues. The origins of the ASEM process lay in the recognition that the relationship between the two regions, Asia and Europe, could be strengthened.
For the past 2 decades ASEM has played a pivotal role as a forum for dialogue and cooperation. ASEM celebrates its 20th anniversary on 15-16 July 2016 at the 11th ASEM Summit (ASEM11) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Managing growing Europe-Asia relations
ASEM was established as a new process between Asia-Europe, complementing existing Europe-Asia relations. ASEM is not a substitute for other bilateral or multilateral forums between Asia and Europe, and it can help to facilitate and stimulate progress in other forums. As a new layer of dialogue and cooperation, ASEM has enhanced synergies in Europe-Asia relations and served as catalyst for overall Asia-Europe relations.
ASEM has helped Europe and Asia to have a more global vision of the two regions. By remaining an informal dialogue-based process, ASEM aims to promote overall Asia-Europe relations on international and inter-regional issues of common interest. By bringing together different cultures and civilisations, ASEM is a unique process to foster common understanding and dialogue.
From the initial Summit with 26 partners, ASEM now brings together 51 countries and 2 international institutions. This growth has taken place in several stages. Partly, it has followed naturally through the enlargement of the European Union and ASEAN, partly additional countries have seen the value of joining in this fruitful process. The following illustrations present the current ASEM partners and show the development in ASEM membership over these 20 years.
Today, almost two thirds of the world population is living in countries participating in the ASEM process. Over the last 20 years, the population living in ASEM partner countries has grown from just under 2.2 billion in 1996 to 4.5 billion in 2014, (the most recent year for which data are available).
Social and economic progress
Across the ASEM partners, data show that there has been a trend over the last 20 years for people to move from the countryside into cities, in particular into cities with more than one million inhabitants, most notably among the Asian ASEM partners. This trend reinforces and creates new social challenges that are common to all ASEM partners, calling for exchange of experiences and solutions.
While there are variations in the share of the population at school age or below (0-14 years) across the ASEM partners, it is interesting to note that the share of the population of working age (15-64 years) is relatively similar between the regions.
It is notable how much the GDP in the ASEM partners has grown since 1996, both in total and measured per inhabitant.
The data also reflect the rapid emergence of the ‘information society’, with rapid growth in both mobile phone and internet usage.
Asia-Europe Meeting partners:
European Union Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and United Kingdom
Other European partners: Norway and Switzerland ASEAN member states: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam
Northeast and South Asia (NESA) partners:
Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Russian Federation
International institutions: European Union and ASEAN Secretariat
Number of ASEM partners at each enlargement
Surface area of ASEM at each enlargement (million square kilometres)
15 25
27 27 27 28
2 2
7
10 10 10 10 10
3
3 6 9 10 11
1 1
2 2 2 2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
1996 2004 2008 2010 2012 2014
EU Norway and Switzerland ASEAN NESA Intl. organisations (1)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
1996 2004 2008 (1) 2010 2012 2014
EU Norway and Switzerland (2) ASEAN NESA (1) European Union from 1996 onwards; ASEAN Secretariat from 2008 onwards Source: ASEM Infoboard
(1) 2008: Major enlargement, including India; (2) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012
Source: ASEM Infoboard
Share of ASEM in the world population (1) (%)
Unemployment rate in ASEM, 1996–2014 (% of the labour force)
(1) Total ASEM population corresponds to the population of the countries who were ASEM partners in the year in question
Source: World Bank World Development indicators
38 37 38
60 62
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
1996 2001 2006 2011 2014
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 ASEM EU Norway and Switzerland (1) ASEAN NESA (1) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012
Source: International Labour Organization
Share of ASEM population aged 0 to 14 years, 2014 (% of total population)
Share of ASEM population of working age (aged 15 to 64 years), 2014 (% of total population)
23
16 16
27
23
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
ASEM EU Norway and
Switzerland ASEAN NESA
ASEM EU Norway and
Switzerland ASEAN NESA
68 66 67 67 69
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Source: World Bank World Development indicators Source: World Bank World Development indicators
Share of urban population in ASEM, 1996–2014 (% of total population)
Population in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants in ASEM, 1996–2014 (% of total population)
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 ASEM EU Norway and Switzerland (1) ASEAN NESA 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 ASEM EU Norway and Switzerland (1) ASEAN NESA 0.0
2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 12.5 15.0 17.5 20.0 22.5 25.0
(1) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012.
Source: United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects (1) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012.
Source: United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects
ISBN 978-92-79-58771-9 doi:10.2785/34709
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c o m p a c t g u i d E S 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
ASEM EU Norway and Switzerland (1) ASEAN NESA 0
200 400 600 800 1 000 1 200 1 400
Mobile phone penetration in ASEM, 1996–2014 (subscriptions per thousand inhabitants)
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 ASEM EU Norway and Switzerland (1) ASEAN NESA 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Internet users in ASEM, internet use in the last 12 months, 1996–2014 (% of the population)
(1) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012
Source: Eurostat (online data code: isoc_ci_ifp_iu) for EU, Norway and Switzerland;
International Telecommunication Union for other ASEM partners (1¹) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012 Source: International Telecommunication Union
ASEM gross domestic product at market prices, by enlargement round (billion current EUR)
0 5 000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000 30 000 35 000
1996 2004 2008 2010 2012 2014
EU (1) Norway and Switzerland (2) ASEAN (3) NESA (1) Malta not available for 2014; (2) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012; (3) Myanmar only available from 2012 onwards
Source: World Bank national accounts data, OECD national accounts data
EU (1) Norway and Switzerland (2) ASEAN (3) NESA 4 443
6 693
1 677 4 044
90 109
24 908 36 403
7 391 9 916
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 1996
2014
ASEM
GDP per capita in ASEM, 1996 and 2014 (current USD)
(1) Malta not available for 2014; (2) Norway and Switzerland are ASEM members since 2012; (3) Myanmar not available for 1996
Source: WorldBank national accounts data and OECD national accounts data
AsiA-EuropE MEEting (AsEM) For information on the Asia-Europe Meeting:
ASEM Infoboard: http://www.aseminfoboard.org
KS-01-16-543-EN-N
ISBN 978-92-79-58771-9 doi:10.2785/34709
© European Union, 2016 Cover: © shutterstock.com
This project is funded by the European Union
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the Asia-Europe Meeting Looking ahead into ASEM’s third decade
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Autumn 2015 the challenge of connectivity
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EurostAt coopErAtion rEsourcEs
For information on Eurostat’s statistical cooperation activities: http://
ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/international-statistical-cooperation/
overview
E-mail: [email protected]
See ‘Statistics explained’ for further insight into Eurostat’s international cooperation activities:
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Non- EU_countries
See in particular the article ‘Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) - a statistical portrait - key facts’
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Asia- Europe_Meeting_%28ASEM%29_-_a_statistical_portrait_-_key_facts See also
European External Action Service (EEAS):
http://eeas.europa.eu
s tat i s t i c a l b o o k s Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM)
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