There are different kinds of initiatives to bring about solutions to social issues in Asia. However, the lack of communication among the related non-profit, social enterprise, foundation, intermediary, and governments stakeholders creates redundancy and low market efficiency. In order to overcome this challenge, the Social Innovation Link (SOIL) program includes specific knowledge and practice transfer projects among Asian countries to develop a regional eco-system that will help to accelerate the social innovation process in Asia.
https://jfac.jp/en/culture/projects/p-soil/

From 2019 to 2020, Japanese and Thai social sectors and social entrepreneurs have been exchanging their experiences and knowledge to accelerate the development of the two sectors:  "employment of people with disabilities" and "eco-tourism". At this event, you will witness the result of the two-years exchange program and get ideas of how multinational exchanges could accelerate the resolving social issues.  

 At this public event, along with the results of the exchange program, the keynote speech by Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, director of the Thai National Innovation Agency, and the panel discussion by panelists leading the social sector in Japan and Thailand will discuss and explore ideas for building a cross-border social innovation ecosystem in Asia.

This will be a unique opportunity for companies, foundations and non-profit organizations who are interested in promoting international social innovation, and for those who are considering projects related to social innovation by multinational exchange in Asia.

Date and Time：22nd December, 2020. 12noon ~ 3pm
Title：Cross-border Social Innovation Ecosystem ~Toward Accelerating Solving Social Issues in Asia~

Language： Japanese and English simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
Entrance Fee：Free
Venue：Zoom (Online)
Host organizations：The Japan Foundation Asia Center. AVPN
Registration：Registration in advance is required. Please register and the Zoom link will be sent by email on 21st December.
Contact：japan@avpn.asia

Agenda of the Program

Thai time
12:00pm-12:10pm	Opening remarks　Mr.Yasutaka Takeda, Team leader  The Japan Foundation Asia center
12:10pm-12:40pm	Keynote speech   Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, Director National Innovation Agency
12:40pm-1:25pm	Panel discussion Facilitator: Mr.Ken Ito, East Asia Director, AVPN Panelists：Mr. Hideki Fukamachi, Founder & CEO at GEMSTONE Ms.Rina Nishikawa at Cross Fields Mr. Sunit Shrestha, Founder and Managing Director at ChangeFusion
1:25pm~1:40pm	Q&A
1:40-1:50pm	Break
1:50pm-2:20pm	Employment of PwDs project:  LITALICO, Social Innovation Foundation
2:20pm-2:50pm	Eco-turism project:  ECO-CENTER, LocalAlike
2:50pm-3:00pm	Closing remarks

 
KEYNOTE SPEECH


Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana　National Innovation Agency（NIA）　Director

Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana (PAC) – the Executive Director of National Innovation Agency (NIA), Thailand – has been recognized as the country’s pioneer in the fields of foresight and innovation management.
With comprehensive education background in Physics, Economics, Innovation Management and Technology Foresight, PAC engaged with various strategic projects in multi areas, ranges from academia to national policy development. With decades of experience, he involved in several international and national research projects from both private and public sectors, for example managing “Trendnovation Southeast”, the horizon scanning project under the Searchlight Network of the Rockefeller Foundation, and designing “social innovation system” and policy for the Thai social economy. Also he was the Founder and managing director of NOVISCAPE Consulting Group (NCG), the foresight and innovation-specialized company based in Bangkok, and involved with various regional scenario buildings and future exercises since the late 1990s.
Recently, as the program leader of STARTUP THAILAND – a national startup promotion platform by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation  – he has brought national awareness on startup to the public and established a national level policy to make Thailand as an open area for startup not only in Asia region, but also for worldwide.

PANEL DISCUSSION 


Facilitator　
Ken Ito,　AVPN　East Asia Director

Ken Ito works for AVPN as Regional Head (East Asia). He has a bachelor degree in economics and MBA in International Management from The American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in the United States. Ken spent ten years in the private sector, with his last position at GE Capital. He subsequently joined the Institute for Strategic Leadership (ISL) to launch the Center for Social Innovation, to promote social innovation through its leadership training programs.Ken had been a partner at Social Venture Partners Tokyo from 2005 to 2012, running its venture philanthropy fund to support and nurture local social entrepreneurs. He is visiting senior researcher at SFC Research Institute at Keio University since 2007. Ken teaches at Graduate School of Media and Governance as Lecturer and conduct research programs as Project Assistant Professor from April 2016. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Social Value Japan, a Japanese affiliate of Social Value International since 2012. 
 

Panelist  
Hideki FUKAMACHI, GEMSTONE Founder & CEO

Hideki has extensive experience in business development and operations in overseas markets through his work at Yanmar Co., Ltd, and Yanmar America, a world-leading manufacturer of diesel engine and agricultural machinery. He brings a wealth of creative insight in international development from his experiences living or working in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Hideki holds an MBA from University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, a Post-graduate Diploma of Development Studies from the Institute of Developing Economies Advanced School, IDE-JETRO, Chiba, Japan, and a Bachelor of Arts from the International Christian University in Tokyo. He will be certified as ORSCC (Organization & Relationship Systems Certified Coach) in Jan, 2021.
Founder & CEO, GEMSTONE
Corporate Website Link
https://gemstone-global.com
https://gemstone-global.com/?lang=en 

Panelist 

Rina Nishikawa, PR/Marketing Team Leader of Cross Fields (http://en.crossfields.jp/)
BA in Global Political Science, Waseda University. Diploma in Jewelry Design, in Italy.
After experiencing Sales in IBM Japan, Joined Cross Fields in 2015 aiming at driving social changes by accelerating tri-sector collaboration. 

Panelist
Sunit Shrestha, ChangeFusion　Foundar and Managing Director

Sunit Shrestha is founder & Managing Director of ChangeFusion, a non-profit institute under Thai Rural Reconstruction Movement Foundation under the Royal Patronage. ChangeFusion supports social enterprises in various areas including appropriate technology for sustainable agriculture for lower income rural farmers, sustainable tourism and more.
Sunit also collaborates to design the setup of social investment funds for emerging social entrepreneurs in Thailand & Asia through UnLtd Programs in Southeast Asia, Change Ventures (a social investment holding company) and B-KIND Fund (Thailand's first Socially Responsible Investment Fund with the fund size of 46M USD). He also involved in innovative public policy fostering through different posts; second secretary (2010 - 2011) to the National Social Enterprise Committee chaired by the Prime Minister. He became an Ashoka Fellow in 2009.