CCOP/ASEAN-DMR: Business Meeting of the Harmonized Geology Project

On 23 March 2015, CCOP coordinated with DMR of Thailand to hold the business meeting of the CCOP-ASEAN Harmonized Geology Project in Krabi, Thailand with 12 participants from Member Countries, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The main objectives of this meeting were to prioritize the seamless geological map of the Indo-China Peninsula, discuss problems and solutions, and plan for future actions.

Thailand had developed a draft map of the seamless geology for consideration by other Member Countries and tabled problems encountered in making the map for discussion at the meeting.  The Meeting agreed that the Project will use WGS84 as a Reference System and considered not having national boundaries on the harmonized geological map.  The Meeting further agreed that all the Member Countries present shall provide their 1:1M scale national geological map, in digital or printed form to CCOP TS and DMR/Thailand by 1 May 2015 and that the draft CCOP-ASEAN Harmonized Geological Map will be produced by end June 2015.

Dr Okubo informed the Meeting that two related activities for the Project will be organized within this year to be funded by JICA, 1) ASEAN Mineral Resources Database Training in Tsukuba, Japan and 2) On-Site Workshop in Cambodia.

The Member Countries were requested to specify geological discontinuities (mismatches) in cross-border areas and to discuss solutions by the time of the Training Session in Tsukuba (tentatively scheduled for October 2015).