The Signing Ceremony of the ASEAN Plus Three: University Consortium, which aims to foster Next Generation of Global Citizens, was held on 30 March at Multi Media Hall in Nakamiya Campus of Kansai Gaidai University, with the attendance of the presidents from four universities in the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and Yoshitaka Tanimoto, the president of Kansai Gaidai University.　The consortium was officially inaugurated on this day. The ceremony started at 3:00pm. Eiko Tanimoto, the President of the Board of Trustees, Kansai Gaidai University delivered an address of welcome. In this address, she stated, “The university consortium we are starting today will add a new network to strengthen the bonds among Asian countries. I would like to see the region develop so that people care about each other regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, and people of the world walk forward together, hand in hand, on a path paved by educational cooperation.”

Yoshitaka　Tanimoto, President of Kansai Gaidai University, thanked all the participants and reconfirmed the commitment to cooperation among participating universities to insure the success of the consortium as follows; “One institution acting alone can take a few small steps in achieving this goal. A group of us, however, by sharing our resources and combining our creativity, can take giant strides toward the achievement of such objectives.”