Building Regional Culture : Asean Mayor Forum Roles To Improve Regional Partnership

As one of ASEAN pillars, culture not only as a way to improve the quality of life, regional culture also becomes an identity which is shows tolerance in diversity, sustained inter-state relations, community development and certainly shows the future of ASEAN. This is certainly could not be separated from the participation of all stakeholders including local governments to promote awareness, participation and ownership among the people the region. One of forum that involved local government is ASEAN Mayor Forum (AMF) that seen partnership as a method to increase the quality of community and environmental sustainability in the region. This paper aims to explore how local governments with diverse cultures are able to build strong regional cultural ties that can encourage regional collaboration between cities and local governments through knowledge sharing and mutual learning among key stakeholders in the region. Using the concept of paradiplomacy and cross-disciplinary studies with qualitative data, this study is an attempt to explaining new tactics for converting global values into local norms and regulation.