The ASEM Education and Research Hub for Lifelong Learning was officially launched by the Danish Minister of Education at Copenhagen Conference in May 2005. The original initiative was taken in 1999, a Steering Committee of the Initiative with representatives from Denmark (chair), Ireland, Malaysia and Singapore was set up in 2001. Subsequently three cross-national thematic working groups were established in early 2002 to carry out preliminary research and identify common interest of member countries. The reports and recommendations were submitted to the ASEM Summit IV Copenhagen in September 2002, where the topic of lifelong learning was proposed by Denmark as a new area for Asia-Europe cooperation. Workgroup 1 continued its theme and presented outcomes to the EU, OECD and Asia-Europe Foundation. The proposal to establish the ASEM LLL Hub was adopted at the ASEM Summit V in October 2004 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
