The 48th Annual Session of the Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia (CCOP) was held at the Holiday Villa Beach Resort & Spa in Langkawi, Malaysia on 5-8 November 2012. It was organized by the Minerals and Geoscience Department Malaysia (JMG), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) Malaysia and the Technical Secretariat of CCOP (CCOP TS) in cooperation with PETRONAS.
There were 109 delegates attending the Session from the following: Member Countries - CAMBODIA, CHINA, INDONESIA, JAPAN, REPUBLIC OF KOREA, LAO PDR, MALAYSIA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, PHILIPPINES, SINGAPORE, THAILAND, and VIETNAM; Cooperating Countries - CANADA, DENMARK, FINLAND, GERMANY, JAPAN, THE NETHERLANDS, NORWAY and UNITED KINGDOM; Cooperating Organizations - PETRAD and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM); and Honorary Advisers of CCOP. The staff of CCOP Technical Secretariat (CCOPTS) and JMG provided the necessary conference services.
The Session was officially opened by the Honorable Tan Sri Datuk Sri Panglima Joseph Kurup, NRE Deputy Minister, on behalf of the NRE Minister, Honorable Dato Sri Douglas Uggah Embas. Welcome addresses was delivered by the Permanent Representative of Malaysia to CCOP, and Director General, Minerals and Geoscience Department Malaysia, Dato’ Yunus Abdul Razak. Dr. R. Sukhyar, Chairman of the CCOP Steering Committee & Permanent Representative of Indonesia to CCOP and Ms.Franca Schwarz, Vice-Chairman of the CCOP Advisory Group & Representative of Germany to CCOP delivered special messages.
Dato’ Yunus Abdul Razak, Head of the Delegation of Malaysia was elected Chairperson of the Session and Dr Eikichi Tsukuda, Head of the Delegation of Japan, was elected Vice-Chairperson. The Representatives from Vietnam (Dr. Nguyen Hong Minh) and Canada (Ms. Carmel Lowe) were elected as Rapporteurs.
Prof Dr He Qingcheng, CCOPTS Director presented the Progress Report of CCOP including organizational changes (personnel), the current financial position, technical activities and cooperation and support from Cooperating Countries and Organizations from 2010 to June 2012, with update to October 2012. Member Countries also reported on their geoscientific activities by sectors - georesources, geo-ennvironment and geo-information. Cooperating Countries and Organizations also reported activities conducted with CCOP, as well as those bilateral activities with CCOP Member Countries. The Session was also updated by the CCOPTS Director of CCOP's workplan for 2013.
The Delegation of Japan updated the Session of its intention to host the 49th CCOP Annual Session on 20-24 October 2013 at Sendai International Center (SIC).
The EAGER Grant for 2012 was announced at the Session, and was awarded to Mr. Ahmad Farid Abu Bakar, a PhD student in the University of Malaya. The title of his research proposal is “The transport and fate of selected acid mine ions in surface water and river sediment with regards to mining activities”.
The Advisory Group (AG) consisting of representatives from Cooperating Countries and Organizations as well as Honorary Advisers, led by Ms Schwarz in the absence of the AG Chairman, met in private session, and reported back to the Annual Session its recommendations for CCOP. These recommendations are for consideration of the 59th CCOP Steering Committee Meeting held right after the Annual Session. The AG elected a new chairman, Ms Schwarz and vice-chairman, Mr Ioannis Abatzis, Representative of Denmark to CCOP, effective January 2013.
A thematic session was jointly organized by the Minerals and Geoscience Department Malaysia (JMG), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), PETRONAS and CCOP on the topic “Geoscience Innovations for Sustainable Development – The Future We Want”. There were 22 keynote and technical papers, and 2 posters presented at this session.
A field excursion was made on the last day in Langkawi Geopark, at Kilim Karst Geoforest Park Trail (boat cruise) and Machincang Cambrian Geoforest Park (cable car trail).
In conjunction with the Annual Session, the following were held: 59th CCOP Steering Committee Meeting (9-10 November 2013); CCOP-SEADPRI-GTK-JMG Workshop on Natural Hazards; and Climate Change Adaptation; and DELTARES-JMG-CCOP Expert Meeting on Land Subsidence in Coastal Megacities (9 November 2013).
