Regionally Based
Assessment of Persistent
Toxic Substances
GEF
Central and North East Asia Region (Region VII)
2nd Technical Workshop
Hong Kong SAR
POST-WORKSHOP - NOTES OF MEETING
__________________________________________________________________________________
Date:
16 May 2002
Venue:
Lam Woo International Conference Centre
Hong Kong Baptist University
Hong Kong SAR
Time:
11:45 am 12:30 pm
Attendees
Prof MH WONG
Regional Co-ordinator
Dr Kyunghee CHOI
Regional Team Member
Dr Elena GROSHEVA
Regional Team Member
Dr Noriyuki SUZUKI
Regional Team Member on behalf of Dr Shin
SAKAI/Dr Yasuyuki SHIBATA
Ms Anna LEUNG
Assistant to Prof MH WONG
1.0
Purpose
1.1
The purpose of the post-workshop meeting was to review progress, deadlines, and
potential problems, and discuss organisation of future meetings.
2.0
Progress
2.1
Prof WONG stated that he was pleased with the workshop and that a lot of progress
was made during the workshop. Follow-up with participants in terms of data
Regional Team
collection for chapters 3 and 4 of the regional report was emphasised.
2.2
Dr CHOI mentioned that data for the environmental levels section of the regional
report was insufficient. Data was not available from Mongolia and Uzbekistan, and
levels submitted from Kazakhstan were surprisingly high. The data required
verification.
3.0
2nd Regional Team Meeting
3.1
The 2nd Regional Team Meeting will be held on 11-13 June 2002 in Seoul, Korea.
It was urged that air tickets be reserved as soon as possible as tickets may be scarce
Regional
due to hosting of World Cup in Seoul during this period. Flight information is to be
submitted to Dr CHOI to facilitate arrangement of hotel accommodations.
3.2
Draft chapters of the Regional Report are to be circulated amongst the regional
Regional Team
team by 5 June 2002 for comment prior to the 2nd Regional Team Meeting.
3.3
Dr CHOI recommended that the duties and responsibilities of each team member
should be clearly stated for efficient and effective organization and progress for 2nd
Regional Team Meeting.
3.4
A draft agenda for 2nd Regional Team Meeting will be circulated to the team
members.
3.5
Participation of Dr SUZUKI to the 2nd Regional Team Meeting would be beneficial
WONG/SUZUKI
due to his significant contribution to the 2nd Technical Workshop. The matter would
be discussed with Dr SAKAI and Dr SHIBATA.
3.6
It is important to have all Regional Team Members present at the 2nd Regional
Regional Team
Team Meeting in order for efficient and effective review of the draft Regional
Report.
4.0
Regional Priority Setting Meeting (RPSM)
4.1
The Regional Priority Setting Meeting will be held on 4-6 September 2002 in
Beijing, PR China.
4.2
Date for the finalisation of the draft regional report will be 5 July 2002.
Regional Team
4.3
Invitation letters will be sent to environment ministers, bureaucrats, representatives
from industry, NGOs, and scientists as soon as possible. It was proposed that letters
to high-level officials (i.e. environment ministers) would be issued by UNEP,
whereas letters to other invitees would be issued by the regional co-ordinator. This
matter would be further confirmed with Mr WHYLIE.
4.4
Each team member is to identify potential participants from their countries of
Regional Team
responsibilities. For `global' participants from industry and NGO, it was
recommended that Mr WHYLIE identify these participants. Names of potential
participants are to be forwarded to the regional co-ordinator by 24 May 2002. The
total number of participants to be invited to the meeting will be 34 persons
(excluding team members) (please see below).
4.5
Draft regional report will issued to participants in July 2002.
Regional Team
4.6
It was recommended that the program/agenda for the meeting be advised by Mr
WHYLIE.
4.7
Advice will be sought from Mr WHYLIE on issue of economy air ticket for
high-level participants.
4.8
Dr GROSHEVA mentioned that she had written letters to ministers in Russian
Federation with regards to the RPSM, however, as the country did not have any
official and financial support for environmental matters, it would be difficult to
obtain participation to the meeting. Dr GROSHEVA also mentioned that it would
be difficult to obtain participation from Turkmenistan.
5.0
Other Matters
5.1
Dr CHOI commented that communication with regards to the project was
Regional Team
sometimes difficult due to the fact that team members were not all situated at the
same place. Therefore, extra effort was encouraged for effective and efficient
communication.
5.2
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm.
This FINAL Notes of Meeting was prepared by the Institute for Natural Resources and Environmental
Management, Hong Kong Baptist University (31/5/2002).
Table 1 Number of Participants to the Regional Priority Setting Meeting
CHN
HK CHN-TP JPN ROK DPRK MON
RUS
KAZ
KRY
TAJ
TUR
UZB
Global
Sub-Total
Regional Team
1
1
2
1
1
6
Government
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
12
Industry
2
1
1
2
1
7
NGO
1
1
1
1
1
2
7
Scientists
1
2
1
2
1
1
8
Sub-total
6
2
7
5
1
2
7
2
1
1
1
2
3
40