18 - 19 September 2008
University of Asia and the Pacific, Pasig City

Conference Fee: P1, 000 for professionals and P500 for students

Property rights are the first step to wealth creation. It allows access to capital and provides incentives for business. Paired with a free market economy, a strong rule of law and limited government, individuals have the freedom and the security to realize their full economic potential. This in turn is the key ingredient to achieving greater prosperity. With prosperity comes a richer quality of life: higher income, life expectancy and environmental conditions. When property rights are not well defined or consistently protected, individual freedom is eroded and poverty stays entrenched.

The protection of property rights differ in Asia. The conference will address: the legal and economic perspectives, acquisition of property by the state, significance of property rights in the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the challenges to property rights in Asia. To view the draft program, please click here. Download registration form here.

For more information, please e-mail: liberal@fnst.org. Deadline for registration: 31 August 2008.

Calling himself the “cheerleader-in-chief” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Dr. Surin Pitsuwan spoke of the importance of ASEAN in forwarding the democratic agenda in the region during a reception in his honor. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) and the Liberal Party of the Philippines (LP) hosted the new ASEAN secretary-general on 7 July 2008 at the FNF-CALD office in Makati City.

Dr. Pitsuwan said that in the face of the growing power of China and India, ASEAN needed to become more relevant. It has thus created a charter to respond to the challenges of the region. He explained how the charter will give ASEAN a legal personality and consolidate the collection of diverse countries into a successful community. Dr. Pitsuwan was pleased to announce the charter’s ratification by six countries already and called on the Philippines to approve it also. Read more on the ASEAN secretary-general’s visit.

Dr. Horst Köhler, president of the Federal Republic of Germany, greets Lord Ralf Dahrendorf, former FNF chairman.

The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the leader of the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), prominent liberal leaders and descendants of Theodor Heuss and Friedrich Naumann gathered in Bonn, Germany on 19 May 2008 to celebrate the golden jubilee of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF).

Wolfgang Gerhardt, FNF chairman, led the 1,500 guests in celebrating 50 years of the Foundation’s work. He welcomed the crowd by reiterating FNF’s mission and stressed that its name change underlines the primacy of its work in individual freedom. Read more on the FNF's Golden Jubilee.

Human rights and market economy are two words normally not associated with each other, yet there is a strong connection. To discuss this, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) conducted a half-day seminar for Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC) staff and interns on 14 May 2008 in Makati City.

“This is the first time the Center looked at human rights from the perspective of economics,” said AHRC Executive Director Carlos Medina Jr. “This gave us a better perspective of things. For example it is assumed that government should provide basic services, but actually government should provide for the correct environment [for the market to supply these],” he said. Read more on market economy seminar.