Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum

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After finishing the panel at Tunis, I left the hotel in late afternoon.  Arriving at Doha, Qatar via Dubai at 6:30 am, I checked in at Sheraton again.  I was here this past June (Ref.1), too.  This time, it was right when Qatar won the 2022 World Cup Bid.

My travel was by the invitation of Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum which will be held for two days.  The Qatar Foundation  (Ref.1) is one of the major institutions of Qatar focused on development of good education. Her Highness herself is the devoted driver of its activities, some of which have already produced great results. For example,  the research laboratories of Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, Texas A&M University are all built on the huge premise of the Foundation.
 
Because this was their first Forum, the main purpose was to introduce the Qatar Foundation to the world.  The Foundation attracted many participants this year.  This country is very young, to begin with.  And the nation is also very dedicated to human resource development, with the initiatives of the Qatar University.  They are keen to education because they know that, although they are rapidly accumulating wealth as one of the major energy exporting nations of the world of gas and oil, the final resource this small island nation will be able to depend on for its future is the human resource.

Qatar is also a nation that protects and supports culture and art.  A good example of this is the Museum of Islamic Art, which I have spoken about before on this site.

The Forum opened at 9am with the speech of Her Highness, the Queen.  Between the programs, I enjoyed reading posters (especially those by the students).  I was also a jury member that presided over the presentations of Biomedical Science researches. Dr. Elias Zerhouni （former Director of NIH）, Dr. Peter Agre (a Nobel laureate of chemistry for his discovery of water channel) and Dr. Monsef Saloui（the head of GSK, RD）were also part of this jury. Elias and Moncef are my good friends, but I have not worked with Dr. Agre before. I did, however, know about his work, and had listened to several of his lectures. The forum was full of young energy.  I was particularly impressed by the existence of many active women.

In the evening, I visited Ambassador Moji at the Japan embassy in Qatar with President Tsuciya and several people of Tsuchiya Corporation (Mr. Nishida, a very good Arabic speaker whom I saw at the embassy in Abu Dhabi was there also.)  Then, we visited the residence of former Ambassador of Qatar to Japan, H.E. Reyad Ali Al-Ansari who recently returned to Qatar after 9 years of service in Japan and invited us for dinner.  It is nice to experience expansion of human networks like this.  H.E. Al-Ansari said that his son studied in the U.S. and is currently working in the oil business in Qatar.  However, he seemed to be not so approving of his daughter’s studying abroad.

We paid a brief visit to the president of administration of Her Highness the next day at the head office of Qatar Foundation. It was unfortunately brief because our schedule was packed in the afternoon with many sessions on science policy etc.  We need to have more Japanese researchers and youths participate in such occasions. It is important to promote the exchange of young people.

The result of the selection was announced at the evening reception.  From our group, the award was given to a study done on defective hearing that identified the responsible DNA and showed that the deficiency was caused by the malfunctioning of its hair cells.  The project was very nicely  researched and the researcher answered each question with confidence.  Her boss, the head of the administrative office at her hospital (who also happened to be a women), looked very happy.  This head was also a very gifted and able person whom I truly enjoyed talking for some time with.  I was seated at the same table as the professors of MIT, UCLA, and the Dean of the local Texas A&M research laboratory.  We quite enjoyed the conversation over dinner because we had so many common topics to talk about.  I had to leave during the dinner to catch the 22:50 airplane for Abu Dhabi, a forty minute flight.
 
Whenever I am exposed to the energy and motivation of young people, I always become eager to help.  I also look forward to seeing more exchanges carried out between Japan and Qatar.

To Tunis: Japan-Arab Economic Conference

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In the evening of December10th, I left Narita via Dubai to Tunis in order to attend the 2nd Japan-Arab Economic Conference held in Tunis on the 11th and 12th.  The arrival time at Tunis was shortly after noontime.

I felt a cool breeze as I left the airport, and I thought that Tunis was a nice place.  Since I had seen H.E. Hatano, former ambassador to UAE, in Dubai, I headed directly to the Carthage remains from the airport.  I enjoyed a nice tour with Mr. Ohashi, a long time expert of middle eastern business of Mitsui & Co. He kindly guided me around with a full explanation of the sites (he is quite informed about this area, and said that he recently stayed in Tunis for a week…)

Here, we encountered Mr. Ohata, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, and delegates.

After stopping by at several sight seeing spots, we arrived at Sidi Bou Said (Ref.1), our final destination.  It was a lovely old town with white walls and beautiful blue windows and doors.  We had tea at the so called oldest coffee shop in the world, relaxing, as the time went slowly by.  Tunis is in the Mediterranean Culture zone, both geographically and historically.  Time pass slowly here.  I must admit that a workaholic lifestyle, competing only for higher GDPs, has some problems.  Here, you can feel the long history of culture.

The reception was held at Ramada Hotel, the venue of the conference and our accommodation.  About 300 people came for this conference from Japan.  The head of the Japanese delegation was Mr. Okuda of Toyota, and I had the honor of seeing and greeting many leaders of Japanese business.  Mr. Maehara, Minister of Foreign Affairs, also participated this year.  I had an impression that many Japanese from business sector came to the reception.

The conference hall was packed the next day.  It must have been hard to keep on schedule since there were many different sorts of people who gave speeches.  It started with the Japanese Ministers Maehara and Ohata, and then the Ministers of Arabian countries and many important people gave speeches.  I imagine that it was hard work for the secretariat. There were a number of collaborative projects were signed and announced, giving hope for a series of of good outcomes in coming years.

I tried to illustrate Japanese activities to the participants by briefly explaining relationships of Japan and Arabs. In these illustrations I included an introduction of the STS Forum, the panels on education, human resource development, science, and technology.  After having a slightly late lunch, I packed my things and headed for the airport.  I arrived at Doha via Dubai early in the morning of 12th.

Somehow, this travel was quite a busy one.

Welcoming Dr. Mario Tokoro at My Keio SFC Class

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On October 29th, we welcomed to my Keio SFC class (in Japanese)  Mr. Kohei Nishiyama. He came as a guest speaker to lecture about his very interesting story regarding his innovative business, Imaginative Space, Elephant Design.

Our guest for October 27 was Dr. Mario Tokoro (I like to call him Mario…). He is the founder and President of Sony Computer Science Laboratories as well as a Professor at Keio University.  Dr. Tokoro is conducting a course for graduate school at Keio’s Yagami Campus, where he had honored me by requesting that I participate..

The topic of his lecture was ‘Open Systems Science’, which is essentially the culminating result of his several years studying scientific issues of future generations. In its most simplest form, open systems science is the methodology used to manage and solve the problems in systems whose operation needs interaction with the outside world, as opposed to being closed and complete within themselves. This methodology can be used for systems like globalization and biomedical research, where the system is open and consists of many subsystems that might be dependent on other systems to operate. Dr. Tokoro’s book on this topic is titled, ‘Open Systems Science: From Understanding Principles to Solving Problems (The Future of Learning)’ both in English and Japanese.

 His other book, ‘Sony’s magic lab ? where geniuses and super-talents pop up’ (in Japanese), which describes about this unique lab and the talents they accommodate.  I strongly recommend reading this. 

 
Director, Dr. Hiroaki Kitano was awarded one of the two Mentor Awards from ‘Nature’ magazine last year that celebrate those individuals who promote youth to explore their independence in the world.  He is again a very original person, clearly one of the ‘Crazy Ones’ that I am very fond of.

The lecture that Dr. Tokoro gave in my class was also delivered to Stanford University about one month ago. It is about the future of science and of science education. It is about exploring in order to find the true direction for its development.

Dr. Tokoro does this by initially introducing an overview of the history of modern science and then goes into stimulating discussions about the future of science and how he thinks it should develop.  I made several supplementary comments, too.

Here it is in English.
And here it is on-line.  

 

The See-D and D-lab Activities Continue

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Previously, I introduced the event called ‘Technologies Appropriate to Local Needs Will Save the World’ . It was held in July by the students’ initiatives of D-Lab at MIT and Kopernik, (in Japanese).

Their activities later developed into sending students to East Timor in order for them to see the place firsthand -  to feel the situation, identify the issues, search for solutions, and craft plans for possible projects.  The results of their observations and analyses were displayed and presented at GRIPS, my home institution, on October 22nd.

Participants commonly reacted with surprise to experiences in East Timor.  Much of this reaction was reflected in their work. They described the proposed projects with strong emotion ? with a passionate drive to introduce solutions to the issues they observed.

To have a discussion about their plans was part of their objectives and was also included in this event. Together, with the participation of commentators and Professor Yonekura of Hitotsubashi University (Ref.1), an avid supporter of this sort of activity, triggered not only great excitement, but also materialized great learning opportunities to all who participated.

A review  of this gathering is available at Kopernik, and ‘here’ (in Japanese) and ‘here’ (in Japanese)

Like the lively discussion that took place at this conference, I advocate for analyzing ideas in a serious but positive manner. Where there is room for support or opinion do so cautiously. Give constructive criticism that encourages the students to further think about the problems and tasks at hand. Refrain from merely providing the solution, especially since you don’t know if different sorts of creative solutions will emerge from those students, youth, or young professionals.  Provide support, but without too much meddling.  And most importantly, never discourage the youth. If you do so, the only service you will provide is to chill their passion. Encourage youth by helping them see for themselves the world around them. Be silent but strong for them, and remember that our future lies in their hands.

As for the young individuals you gathered in the conference room to discuss East Timor, each and every one filled to the rim with passion for what they spoke about. We need this sort of energy to be felt more.

 

Speech on Healthcare Policy

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My reports are somewhat delayed than usual, but I have returned home on October14th from a slightly long travel which started on 5th.

Next day in the morning, at the Denmark Embassy in Tokyo, I gave speech on ‘Healthcare Policy for the Aging Society’ to the audience of about 30 or so of legislators and other members of Denmark’s delegate visiting Japan.  I was told that  Ambassador Melbin  (Ref.1) and the audience enjoyed my speech.  (by the way, around April or so, I went to see the Ambassador to talk about the World Cup; and, of course, the Japan-Denmark match….)  The discussions in Seattle turned out to be very helpful in preparing my speech.

After leaving the Denmark Embassy, I headed to Haneda airport to fly to Matsuyama.  The Panasonic Shikoku in Matsuyama is focusing on healthcare and they asked me to speak on topics on ‘Healthcare Policy for the Aging Society’.

I was being so focused on this theme for these days, so I was able to learn much from these events, and also was able to develop new ideas.
 
Developed countries share common challenges; ‘1. Continuing growth of the aging society, 2. Chronic diseases as a major disease burden, and 3. Public funding for healthcare being hard to increase’.  I have written about the framework of my ideas in many occasions, and my view remains essentially the same as of today.  What I think is uploaded in recent On-line article of Nikkei (in Japanese), so please have a look.

These are without doubt one of the top priorities of political issues today.

 

From Singapore

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Click here for photos of Marina Bay Sands Resort

I left STS Forum in Kyoto early in the morning of October 5th, made a brief stop at my home, and arrived at GRIPS early in the afternoon.  There, I had a good conversation over various topics with Dr. Han Seung-Soon, the former prime minister of Korea, whom I have met in Seoul just recently.  Then, I took a train from Tokyo Station to Narita Airport, arriving at Singapore at around midnight.

IMG_0008 (2)

Next morning was a board meeting of A*STAR . The discussion was heated from beginning to the end until the meeting closed after lunch.  This board is working quite vibrantly actually.  Budgets are allocated to make Singapore more competitive in science, technology and research, to build new opportunities ? very constructive and active.  A*STAR is also planning a collaboration with Universities in Iran, in order to develop further exchanges of talented students.  Another project is the Liberal Arts course that has a full boarding system which will be offered in collaboration with Yale University.  In short, they are so dedicated to nurturing global talents.  It is a common sense, so to say, that ‘Nurturing Human Talents is the Base of Building of a Nation’ (in Japanese), but it seems quite different in a country who knows where. The problem is that adults, the grown-ups, are ‘closed minded’, and that will make it difficult for our nation to address problems we are expected to face in this rapidly ‘flattening age of globalization’.

Late in the afternoon, we visited the ‘Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Resort’.  First thing to do was to see the fantastic view from the top of the building, looking down the course of F1 autorace track that took place just recently, Marina Barrage  where I had been not so long ago, and right beyond the ocean lies Malaysia and Indonesia so closely.  The premise is a combination of three 57 stories high buildings, with hotel, condo, major convention facility, casino, etc. and a 150 meters swimming pool on the top of the building. The view is just breathtaking.  Elevators moves up and down in high speed ?very fast- but motions are almost unnoticeable.

Its grand scale, however, is not the only thing that impresses us.  Prices are also soaring high; Hotel, Condo (still some vacancy…), Casino (sheer admission cost 85 dollars), and practically anything.  After the tour, I had a nice cheerful dinner with other members of the board.

I recommend that you visit this Sands Hotel and Resort if you have an opportunity.

After returning to the Hotel, I spent about 2 hours with Professor Ito, who has been working vibrantly at Singapore for about 10 years, Professor Yamamoto, new member of NUS faculty, and Dr. Steve Chu, a member of the board of UCLA.  I have known Professor Ito since he was at Kyoto University, but he moved to Singapore after retirement from Kyoto, and was awarded President’s Science Award this year.   I congratulate him for this great achievement.  We are so proud of him.

Why don’t more professors of Japanese universities broaden their world and go out to spread their field of activities instead of sticking around universities even after their retirement, I wonder?  Recently, it seems that many accomplished professors stay at universities taking advantage of their uiversities being Independent Administrative Institutionization (Dokuritsu Hojinn).  This would cause less room availabilities, and I feel sorry for young people.  Yet, more ‘adults’ and ‘professors’ complain that youths today are not passionate about going abroad.  This is a problem.  Mind you, young people are quite aware that their seniors are not being consistent in their words and actions.

Tomorrow, a car will pick me up at 5:15 am to take me to the airport.  I will fly for Toronto from here.

 

Participating in Variety of Projects, and Once Again, About Armchair Quarterback

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On September 28th and 29th, Asia Innovation Forum, as you have read in my website last year, was held again.  It is its fourth year and several small ‘satellites’ were set up.  The sizes of the rooms were smaller, in fact that contributed to making the discussions to be more engaging and participatory, and people seemed to like them.

I joined in the last two panels on the 2nd day (in Japanese).  Panelists in the first panel (in Japanese), besides myself, were Dr. Ishikura and Ms. Ishiguro whom I worked with a week ago at the ‘Marunouchi Career Juku’, as I have reported recently, and with Ms. Kaori Sasaki and Ms. Magsaysay Chou, a business leader from the Philippines.  Here, I was again the only male panelist as was the case at the ‘Juku’ last week.  However, this time, the audience consisted mostly of middle aged or senior men and I somehow could feel the difference clearly from a week ago as I participated in the discussions.

The latter panel was hosted by the same host as last year, Mr. Kusunoki, welcoming Mr. Idei (former CEO of Sony) of Quantum Leap, the organizer of this Forum.  I stayed rather quiet this year.  Many views were presented to answer the question ‘One Thing That Would Bring Changes to Japan’, and many panelist pointed more than one Thing; but I had nothing else to say besides ‘Recommendation to Take Leave of Absence from School’, that would give youths broader choices for their future career.  Traditional system of Japan Inc failed to change for more than 20 years even after the burst of bubble economy in 1990, because of the strong opposing power of the establishments. Whatever things that are said have been said many times in the past, but nothing changed as of today.  I sincerely wish to give hope to youths who have long future ahead of them.  To my regret we have seen hardly any changes during these 10 to 20 years, regardless of many policy recommendations made in terms of legislation or budgets.  What matters is ‘execution of plans’!  I think this problem has become basically ‘a battle between generations’, ie, ‘the past vs the future’ generations.

We may need to think differently when we plan our next Forum.  Since Mr. Idei is a wonderful leader in the business sector, together with him, let us craft plans with even stronger impacts for the next year.

On October 2nd, I joined in the ‘Global Agenda Seminar’ (in Japanese) (Ref.1), hosted by Dr. Yoko Ishikura.  Our guest was Dr. Kano, who now works at the World Bank in Washington DC – such youth like him working in global arena has power to easily connect with the hearts of young people who join this very interesting Seminar.

After the Seminar, I headed for Kyoto in the afternoon of October 2nd to participate in the STS Forum.  This Forum gathers so many leaders from all parts of the world, so I enjoy seeing many friends as well as their interesting panels.

Reports will be uploaded on the web sites of each event, so please keep eyes on them.

My schedule is quite tight, I have to admit, but on the other hand I am also concerned about how slow Japan is in its changing.  I think the Democrat Party administration has to face numerous difficulties lying ahead of them.  They are not yet experienced enough in handling the process of politics and legislative processes.  Will it take another 1 to 2 years for them to work effectively?  Also, it is not good that each minister comment on recent China- Japan problems separately and not consistently as one Cabinet.  Diplomacy must have a good, stable leadership in the government.  Even if the ministers think they are speaking to Japanese only, their comments will quickly be translated and be sent out to the people of the world, in particular, to the governments of nations which are interested in Japan affairs.  Current style of press coverage of these Ministers will serve only to give impression that Japanese government has no governance.

I have once written about the effect of ‘Armchair Quarterback (Okame Hachimoku)’  (in Japanese) in my web site, and in that sense, the mail magazines (in Japanese) and twitter (in Japanese) by Mr. So Bunshu are very thought provocative.  Mr. So has deep knowledge about the way people think and feel both in China and Japan, reflecting his own background and real experiences in both countries.

 

Ohya Stone Underground Mining Pit Remain, Teleconference with Canada, and To Mishima

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In the afternoon of September 24th (Fri.), I headed to Utsunomiya to give a lecture at the Japanese Society of Nephrology Eastern Regional Meeting.  Nephrology had been my main background, so it was nice to see Dr. Kusano, the President, and many colleagues at the venue.

Reception was held at a huge underground hall about 15 minutes’ travel by car from downtown Utsunomiya which was originally remain of a mining pit of Ohya stone (Ohya Ishi).

The place actually had quite a good atmosphere.  I found many photos at the blog site of a person who had been here before. (in Japanese)

Underground was quite cool (around the year average temperature is ８℃ (46F)).  Gyoza, the local specialty, beer, wine were served at the reception as well as the special flamenco show.  We spent a good time.
 
The schedule of events at this underground space, as I saw it, seemed to have room for more variety of activities.

I suggest that you visit here when you have an opportunity to go to Utsunomiya area.

After returning to the hotel, I participated in a teleconference on Grand Challenge Canada  for two hours from 10pm to midnight.  Toronto served as the hub for this telecommunication.

On the next day, September 25th (Sat.), I returned home briefly and then headed to Mishima city in Shizuoka Prefecture.  This trip was to give a lecture at the Japanese Telemedicine and Telecare Association (JTTA) (in Japanese) organized by Professor Nakajima, who created telemedicine and telecare training program at Tokai University School of Medicine mainly for international students.  I owe Professor Nakajima for his presence at the Pacific Science Association in which I am part of, in Okinawa  and Tahiti  (Ref.1, 2, 3).  By the way, although this meeting displayed a number of interesting corporate exhibitions they seemed somehow to be intended only for Japanese audience (users) from the start.   I think this is a pity since the world is broad and there must exist great needs.

Giving lectures at annual meetings of scientific societies was something I have done less for a while.  I enjoyed and appreciated these opportunities of two days in a row.

‘Learning on Web: Open Education and Revolution of Learning’, A ‘Must’ Book

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Dr. Iiyoshi  whom I have introduced to you last year (blog, Ref.1) (in Japanese) and Mr. Umeda  （blog） (in Japanese) who is sending out messages from Silicon Valley such as his book ‘Going Through the Web Age (Web Jidai Wo Yuku)’ (by the way, he is also a great writer on shogi game (Japanese chess game))recently co-authored and published ‘Learning on Web (‘Web de Manabu)’ (in Japanese). The book offers lots of ‘eye-opening’ information, very rich in content, and I recommend strongly to all educators and people who are interested in learning or (their) children’s education.

‘Learning on Web’ gives you the idea and sense of how education, starting with the epoc-making OpenCourseWare of MIT (included in the Top50 websites in recent Times magazine), has become ‘Open’, how amazing the speed and power of the trend of the ‘Web age’ is.

As I have been pointing out repeatedly even in many public ‘occasions’  (Ref.1, 2), Internet is a tool that ‘empowers individuals’ with an impact comparable to the printing technology invented by Gutenberg in the 15th century.  Internet enables individuals in broader area to access and/or ‘share’ to broader audience.  It expands globally regardless of country border or time.  Conseqently, new ‘inquiries’ will be raised by many more people, ‘questioning of the (traditional) authorities’ will follow.  Thus, this change continues to move forward but never backwards.  Nations, companies, institutions which fail to adapt itself to this change, or attempts to oppose it will inevitably have to suffer more damages.  I regard this as the essence of ‘globalization’.

iTune, iPod, IPhone, and iPad are some good recent examples.  Just by thinking what industrial sectors resisted, or how these products changed society or the global world, and what eventually became of those resisting power, you will well understand what I mean.
  
In other words, this ‘Learning on Web’ is not only giving information on the new world changes of education to educators, but also reminding them of their responsibilities and questioning how they performed.

However, if you see this book as ‘empowerment of individuals’, ‘Learning on Web’ is asking actively to all students (recipients of education) and learners (who are willing to learn) what kind of education they want, introducing them to new educational opportunities and tools for learning, possibilities of discoveries that make them better and grow.

Also, I sense in this book a concern for Japan which appears to be resting in isolation from the change of the world.  I imagine that this is because that the two authors have been away from Japan for long years, have built their careers outside Japan as an indepedent individual, and therefore are increasingly becoming frustrated and even sorry  (in Japanese) for closed Japan which remains incapable of changing in this rapidly globalizing world, and also reflect their deep love, ‘patriotism’ (not ‘nationalism’) for Japan.

I recommend this book to all people, a ‘must’ reading to all grown ups who are concerned with education.

By the way, the outline of this book and the points they intended to make are given in the blogs of Mr. Umeda and Dr. Iiyoshi  which I have introduced to you above.  Many of the resource sites introduced in this book are shown in a list in this blog. Even if you do not have the book ‘Learning on Web’ at hand, these blogs will help you visit many valuable sites.

It is wonderful to know that there are so many, many people who are devoted to education and nurturing people of the ‘world’.

 

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Hayman Island, ADC Leadership Retreat -2

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Please click here for the photos.

The 2nd day at Hayman Island was beautiful.  We should be outdoors in such day.

However, the program was quite packed.  I was scheduled to be at the ‘Kailis Oration’ (Session 6) (cf. the program).  This opening session of Day 2 was again hosted by Nik Gowing.  It was an exciting session starting with questions raised by Bjorn Stigson, the photos linked above which I appear are of this panel (also included are the 2 photos of Nick Stern (facing backwards), myself, and Bjorn Stigson after the panel).

Clyde Prestowitz, whom I met in Tokyo a few weeks ago, is also participating in various discussions starting today.

For lunch session, I joined session 9.5, a panel surrounded by beautiful greens.  Somehow the discussion focused on the issues of Australia.  My colleague William Saito was also on the panel with me.  Chris Selth said that there were few targets for VC, was quite critical in that sense pointing out how dependent Australia was on its rich natural resources for its economic growth…. Then followed the plenary lecture by Richard Wilkinson  (right after session11).  I think that producing such type of academics as Dr. Wilkinson represents one of the strengths of British academic community.
 
Another session was ‘Cybersecurity’ (session 12.2) hosted by Nik Gowing.  William Saito did a very good job here.

On the 3rd day, 29th, I was especially impressed, among many, by Stephan Bungay in session 16.3, and Bror Saxberg of Kaplan (I felt that the power of the US lies in the fact of having quite a volume of extraordinary, brilliant and ‘crazy’ people like him) in session 17.3 ‘Education futures’ whom I have introduced to you in my last report , and my old friend Jeff West (another brilliant and ‘crazy’) in session 20.3.   These sessions were all very moving and thought provoking.

There were of course many other sessions that I would have liked to join, but as you see from the program, doing so was not easy.

My last appearance in the afternoon was with William Saito at ‘Japan -Perspectives on Change’ (session 19.3).  Australia, the host country, has just gone through the federal election which ended in an unexpected result and people here were talking about it excitedly.  On the other hand our story is; ‘Japan?  Well, we had 5 prime ministers in these 4 years.  Maybe the 6th is coming soon?’ ? isn’t this a bit sad?  I tried to include many comparisons and metaphors to make my points of Japan clearly understandable to non-Japanese intellects; perhaps, I somewhat succeeded since after the session I was told by several people that my discussion was ‘very persuasive, clear, and easy to understand’.  I do think that the current (and even the last 50 years') situation of Japan is difficult to understand if we do not present them in a sound logical manner, focusing to the basic issues and from outside perspective.
 
The closing ceremony ended by a very moving speech by Michael Roux, the host.

We enjoyed a nice dinner reception in the evening.

I would say that this 3 days’ retreat was a very nice event of a good size which made it possible to share much more intimate time, even more than the World Economic Forum in Davos (which I posted for many years), with truly wonderful participants to exchange different and common views and share new ideas. I was able to see my old friends, make new friends, see ‘great’ people such as those whom I have introduced to you in my report postings ‘1, 2’ and Gita Wirjawan  (Ref.1) of Indonesia.  I learned a lot from each of them.  Also, I was lucky enough to be asked to join in many good sessions in earlier phase (opening panels of day 1 and day 2) so many new friends noticed me from early of this three days Retreat  I sincerely thank Michael Roux for his invitation and thoughtsfullness.