The 2008 Model Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) commenced in Beijing on Thursday with 134 participants spending two days canvassing on the theme of "Vision and action: towards a win-win solution".

The two-day conference was organized by the All-China Youth Federation (ACYE) and Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). Most of attendees are students.

They would discuss on an array of topics including resources conservation, competence for sustainable growth, and new global challenges, said Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Khanh, deputy executive director of ASEF.

Lu Yongzheng, vice president of ACYE, said this event played a constructive role in enhancing friendship among youths and symbolized the consensus of ASEF leaders to encourage young people's participation.

Shen Wei, President of Executive Committee of Asia-Europe University Alumni Network (ASEFUAN), a co-organizer of the event, told Xinhua that this was the biggest-Model ASEM activity with participants coming from 39 Asian and European countries.

Shen described this event a prelude to the coming 7th ASEM Summit that would be held in Beijing on October 24 to 25, with leaders from 45 ASEM members expected to attend the meeting.

Liu Jieyi, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister, said all the conference members should possess a broad picture of global scenario and learn to "mutually respect each other" and seek common ground while reserve differences.

"I really appreciate this kind of communication in which people would speak not for the country where he or she is from. Young friends could talk in a frank way and deepen understanding of each other," Liu added.

Katrin Buchmann, who is studying at the College of Europe and representing India in this meeting, said she was quite interested in the topics like terrorism, food crisis and climate change.

Jaime Reis, a composer from Portugal, said "I have never been engaged in such an interesting and diverse meeting. I'm confident we will all create real synergies to increase our personal projects to achieve a better, plural and harmonious world giving our vision and preparing actions towards a win-win solution."

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2008)