From 16 - 20 February 2015, a 'Coordination and Project Design Meeting for the 2016-2017 TC Cycle' was held at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria, organized in collaboration with the Australian Government.
The main purpose of this meeting was to provide the three new IAEA Member States (Brunei, Fiji and Papua New Guinea) with the expertise, knowledge and skills to design their new technical cooperation programme in the various fields of nuclear technologies, based on their specific needs and in-line with their national priorities.
Six participants from Brunei actively participated in this meeting. The project designs were in the areas of diagnostic radiology, radiotherapy, agriculture, and radiation safety. Advice and guidance were given by the IAEA's Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) to the Brunei delegation on the process of drafting and enacting a national radiation safety law, as Brunei is in an urgent need to establish an adequate national radiation safety and regulatory infrastructure.
"This meeting was of great help to us. We learnt a lot about the work of IAEA and in which areas TC can provide us assistance. We now realize the urgency of setting up a regulatory infrastructure, which we hope to become effective by the end of this year. Now there is no way back, we have to seize the momentum and move forward" said Mr. Abdul Hakeem Basir, National Liaison Assistant of Brunei.
As for Fiji, four participants took part in the meeting to finalize their three project designs on radiotherapy, eradication of the fruit fly, environmental monitoring laboratory, in line with their national priorities.
"This was a great learning experience for us, rewarding, enriching and very beneficial," said Mr. Olasoji Olusegun Ajibulu, from the Fji National University, in his concluding statement.
Five participants from Papua New Guinea participated in this meeting. They submitted five projects in the areas of radiation oncology in cancer management, marine environment, livestock and breeding, fruit fly and regulatory infrastructure for radiation safety. "There are many crucial problems we can address efficiently and effectively with nuclear techniques," said Goa Tau, PNG's National Liaison Officer, during the country's first project design weeklong meeting at the IAEA in Vienna. "The IAEA can help us enormously with economic concerns, nutrition issues, security and safety, and can assist us in building our country's capacity," he said.