Come November, over 200 dynamic emerging leaders from the Asia-Pacific and the US will meet in Malaysia at the annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit.

It's the first time the prestigious annual event will be held in Kuala Lumpur.

Hosted by the Asia Society, the Asia 21 initiative has built a large community of nearly 500 outstanding young leaders from every country in the Asia-Pacific region.

"This community is not only promoting mutual understanding and respect across borders, but also developing a common vocabulary of values-based leadership and a platform for transnational collaboration," said the executive vice-president of Asia Society Jamie Metzl.

"Scores of public service projects have emerged from the Asia 21 process and major regional challenges have been addressed.

"To give only one example, an Asia 21 delegation travelled to Pyongyang last month to explore opportunities for regional engagement with North Korea," he added in a recent e-mail interview.

Forum tonight

Metzl, who has previously served in the White House as well as the Department of State and the US Senate, said that the KL summit will be a major step forward in efforts to continue building and strengthening the Asia 21 community.

"The summit will have a major focus on public service, and will encourage leaders to think more deeply about their responsibilities for the greater good, particularly at times of crisis such as these.

"In addition, we hope that people coming from across the region will gain a better understanding and appreciation of Malaysia.

"The Malaysia Asia 21 community is playing a leading role in helping us pull all of this together, which is fantastic," he said.

As a prelude to the summit, Metzl will be speaking at a public forum tonight titled ‘New America, One Malaysia - Young Leaders and The Global Agenda for Change' at JW Marriot hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

He will be joined by past Asia 21 summit participants including Umno Youth chief and Rembau member of parliament Khairy Jamaluddin and DAP's PJ Utara MP Tony Pua, The Nut Graph editor Jacqueline Ann Surin and Malaysiakini co-founder and CEO Premesh Chandran.