More than 200 students from the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) member countries are gathering for the Youth Model ASEAN Conference (YMAC) 2014 in Singapore Polytechnic.

The December 19 – 22 conference, themed “Voices Today, Echoes Tomorrow”, aims at fostering international relations and regional cooperation via the engagement of ASEAN youth.

It connects the young people and equips them with informative knowledge on ASEAN’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and challenges, particularly on the establishment of an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.

… This is the first time all ten ASEAN members having their representatives at an YMAC, said Ong Keng Yong, Executive Deputy Chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University , and Director of the School’s Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.