The 2nd ASEAN environmentally Sustainable Cities Award (ASEAN ESC Award) was held from 11th until 13th November 2003 in Nusa Dua, Bali. This event represented a further culmination of the collaboration between the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Jakarta and the ASEAN-Secretariat, especially with its environmental department. The HSF supports ASEAN in this sector for more than nine years. In the course of this collaboration, a basic workshop for majors and responsible authorities of cities has been realized in 2003. Programs and Strategies for sustainable city development in ASEAN Member States have been developed during this workshop. In the aftermath there have been several workshops and seminars in collaboration with ASEAN, with the aim of elaborating basic environmental indicators for the Award, such as:

- Clean air and air quality
- Water sanitation and prevention of water pollution
- Land management and waste disposal

These indicators have been partly used for the determination of the awardees for the 2nd ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Award. The winning cities of Indonesia were the city of Surabaya - amongst other things-  because of the implementation of a policy in waste management through a 3R concept (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse), conducting of sanitation methods with on-site and off-site systems and their automatic air quality monitoring system (AQMS). Except Surabaya there have been three further cities which were granted a special award:

- Makassar/South Sulawesi for the efforts to improve air quality through consequent measuring of emissions at public and private transportation,
- Palembang/South Sumatra for the exemplary waste disposal including composting,
as well as
- Banjarmasin/ South Kalimantan for the provision and appropriate distribution of clean water

The host institutions, namely the ASEAN Secretariat and the Indonesian Ministry of Environment (KemenLH) praised the contributions of HSF for the ASEAN ESC Award, as well as for the whole Environmental program of HSF. The new Indonesian Environment Minister, Prof. Balthazar Kamuaya, and the Deputy Minister of KemenLH and leader of the AWGESCE Workgroup, Mrs. Masnellyarti Hilman, expressed in their speeches their gratitude for the support of HSF.