Busan–ElaNofitasari, the Chairman of Foreign Affairs of DewanPimpinanPusatIkatanMahasiswaMuhammadiyah (DPP IMM), scored as the third winner in the 5th ASEAN-Korea Frontier Forum, which was held in Busan, South Korea, on November 23-29, 2014. ElaNofitasari was also crowned as the Ambassador of Tourism Industry of Indonesia for ASEAN after presenting her paper, entitled ASEAN as a Single Tourism Destination.

According to Ela, the event that was sponsored by Asia Exchange Association of Republic of Korea was a pride for her as she could share her ideas with six other participating ASEAN delegations. “We discussed about our ideas and thoughts for the economic development of ASEAN countries in the region, as well as discussing about global and regional issues,” she explained via telephone on Tuesday (12/2). In her paper, she explained that Indonesia had very big opportunity for tourism industry and it could be optimized for nation’s growth, and reflecting from this situation, the genuineness of nature and tourism sector should be persevered. Therefore, the existing nature exploration should not damage the nature, which in the end would eradicate the tourism opportunity. She further explained that there were some important agendas, which could help the development pace of tourism industry in ASEAN; they were promotion factor in global market, strengthening capacity as tourism subject, and policies supporting the growth in tourism sector.

The 5th ASEAN-Korea Frontier Forum was a part of collaboration treaty between ASEAN countries and the Republic of Korea (ROK) with main topics in Disaster Management Cooperation, Tourism Industry, and Job Creation for Youths. The participating delegations were from eleven countries; they were: Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and Cambodia. (mac)