ASES 2008 - Asian Social Entrepreneurs Summit Day2

The second day of ASES 2008 starts with visiting social enterprises in Korea. The participants visited either NORIDAN or the Beautiful Store. NORIDAN is a social enterprise which makes, sells, and installs instruments made of recycled materials, and teaches people how to play them. The visitors had a chance to play the recycled instruments and enjoy the music.     The Beautiful Store is a nonprofit organization that works for a more sustainable and sharing society. The visitors to the Beautiful Store heard about the management system of the store and purchased items for themselves. At both places, the participants showed a high level of interest in social enterprises in Korea.     In the afternoon, there were three concurrent sessions.     1.The Prospects and Social Roles of Health Cooperatives in South Korea and Japan (organized by Korea Health Cooperative Federation) In this session, participants took a collective view of the social roles and prospects of the health cooperatives of South Korea and Japan which, as social economic organizations (or social enterprises), have been pursuing social values and objectives in the public sector. There was also an in-depth discussion on the institutional aspects to examine whether there exist any obstacles to strengthening the social safety nets. Moderator: Lee Il young, Korea Health Cooperative Federation Panelists: Nomoto Yasuo, Japan Health Cooperative Federation PARK Bong Hee, Korea Health Cooperative Federation KWEN Gu Hyoung, Ministry of Labor     2. The Significance of Social Entrepreneurship and the Role of Intermediary Organization as a Platform for Social Innovation This session introduced the challenges of three intermediary organizations from Japan and China to create a platform to support social entrepreneurship to accelerate social innovation. Moderator: Ken Ito, Social Venture Partners Tokyo Panelists: Ken Ito, Social Venture Partners Tokyo Jeff Shen, Fuping Development Institute Yvonne Li, Advantage Ventures       3. Social Inclusion and the Role of Social Entrepreneurs This session shared best practice cases in China and Japan, and discussed the role of social entrepreneurs in addressing social exclusion issues.  Moderator: Fan Li, GLI Panelists: Fang Jia Ke, Hetong Elderly Welfare Association, Ren Xu Ping, Rabbit King Co Ltd and Rabbit King Research Center of Poverty Alleviation Zhang Shuqing, Sun Village Kaitsu Ayumu, Swan Bakery Kudo Kei, Sodateage Net     From 17:00 to 18:30, there was a session for listening about social entrepreneurship in China and Japan. LI Fan from China started her presentation by saying that the civil society of China lacks an understanding of public service and public participation. She told us that there must be a more mature civil sector for the development of social entrepreneurs. Hiroishi Takuji from Japan explained how social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs get attention from the public as an efficient model of civil sector activity.  After the Day 2 plenary sessions, the participants enjoyed Korean culture night and a networking party.             Edited and rivesed by Patrick Ferraro