On the margins of the IAEA’s 62nd annual General Conference, members of the Cooperative Agreement for Arab States in Asia for Research, Development and Training related to Nuclear Science and Technology’s (ARASIA) Board of Representatives met at the Agency’s Vienna headquarters, on 18 September 2018, to review the achievements realized through the cooperative agreement and to plan for the implementation of the 2020-2021 technical cooperation (TC) programme.
The opening of the meeting was attended by Dazhu Yang, Deputy Director General (DDG) of the Department of Technical Cooperation, and Liang Qu, Director of the Division of Nuclear Technology in Food & Agriculture. In his opening remarks, Mr Yang reflected on the activities and achievements made possible by the ARASIA agreement. “I would like to commend the concrete efforts of ARASIA towards the designation of ARASIA Regional Resource Centres among its States Parties, for the use of the advanced national institutes within the region,” Mr Yang noted.
Focusing on the future success of the ARASIA Agreement, the meeting’s attendees turned their attention to the growing need to designate ARASIA Resource Centres for particular thematic areas, such as nuclear medicine, an approach which would accelerate and strengthen the effective implementation of the ARASIA TC programme.
During the meeting, participants also discussed the ongoing preparations for the 2020-2021 technical cooperation cycle and agreed upon actions for the finalisation of project designs, in order to ensure that a suite of high-quality projects are ready to be launched in the new cycle.
Among the 24 concepts proposed for the 2020-2021 TC Cycle by ARASIA States Parties, seven new concepts were selected to continue to the design phase. Those concepts cover a broad range of thematic areas, including water, agriculture, nuclear safety, environmental monitoring and protection, human health, and nuclear analytical techniques, all of which are aligned with the ARASIA Strategy and with the Sustainable Development Goals.
The meeting also addressed the development of the ARASIA Programme Committee, by setting up a clear action plan for both resource mobilisation and for the review of ARASIA Guidelines and Operating Rules.
