The 68th CCOP Steering Committee Meeting was held at the Grand Amara Hotel, Naypyitaw, Myanmar on 7-9 March 2017. The Meeting was attended by delegates of the following Member Countries (MC): CAMBODIA, CHINA, INDONESIA, JAPAN, REPUBLIC OF KOREA, LAO PDR, MALAYSIA, MYANMAR, THAILAND, PHILIPPINES and VIETNAM. Also present was Ms. Franca Schwarz, Chairperson of the CCOP Advisory Group, and the Director and staff of the CCOP Technical Secretariat (CCOP TS). The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) attended as Observer.
H.E. U Ohn Winn, Union Minister, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and Dr. Ye Myint Swe, Permanent Representative of Myanmar to CCOP, Director General, Department of Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation gave the welcome remarks. Dr. Joong-Ho Synn, Chairman of CCOP Steering Committee, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to CCOP and President of Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) officially opened the 68th CCOP Steering Committee Meeting.
The Meeting endorsed the Revised CCOP Workplan 2017, Revised CCOP Budget 2017 as well as the recommendations of the 17th CCOP Select Finance Committee Meeting.
The Philippine Delegation reported that the 53rd CCOP Annual Session and the 69th CCOP Steering Committee Meeting will be held on 15-19 October in Cebu City and 20-21 October 2017 in Panglao Island, Bohol, respectively. The topic for the thematic session is “Geoscience Ensuring Environmental Protection in the Development of Natural Resources and Hazard Risk Reduction”. The field trip will be conducted in Bohol on 19-20 October 2017, visiting the Chocolate Hills, new fault line, and the uplifted coast of Loon and Maribojoc as affected by the November 2013 earthquake.
The Korea Delegation expressed their honor to host the 54th CCOP Annual Session (AS) in Pusan, the second biggest city of South Korea, with very beautiful beaches, varieties of seafoods, and kind people. Year 2018 is also the centennial of KIGAM. So, hosting the 54th AS in Korea has more important meaning for Korea. All the details on 54th AS in 2018, Pusan, will be presented at the 53rd AS in Cebu, Philippines.
On the standardization of the CCOP Member Country Annual Cash Contribution, the Meeting endorsed the CCOPTS proposal of using two parameters, the GDP per capita and healthy life expectancy of the "World Happiness 2016 Ranking", and the proposed three groups as follows:
Group I Japan, Republic of Korea (Leader), Malaysia, China, Thailand
Group II: Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines (Leader), Papua New Guinea
Group III: Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar (Leader), Timor-Leste
The Meeting further decided that each group will discuss on how much to increase in the annual cash contribution bearing in mind the need of the CCOPTS of at least USD 50,000 by year 2020 in order to achieve the CCOP Strategic Action Plan 2016-2020. The result of discussion will be reported at the next Steering Committee Meeting.
The Philippine Delegation updated the Meeting on the progress of the CCOP Book Project – Best Practices on Mine Decommissioning and Rehabilitation in CCOP Region, and presented the project’s action plan for 2017 as follows:
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Confirm names of National Project Coordinators
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Confirm required country submissions
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Revise work schedule (include deadline of submissions)
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Take advantage of CCOPTS-proposed Workshop in October 2017 as venue to collect MC contribution to the book
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Confirm source of funds for publication
The Japanese Delegation reported on the progress of the MAMEA Project, Compilation and Publication of a Revised “Magnetic Anomaly Map of East Asia 1:4,000,000” on CD-ROM. In February 2017, The CCOPTS sent out letters to all the member countries asking for nominations of each country’s contact person for the MAMEA Project. At this meeting, the following countries have not yet nominated contact persons for the project, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
Below is the schedule of the project’s activities.
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Project proposal at the 67th Steering Committee meeting in November 2016 (done).
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Confirmation of the contact person at this SC meeting in March 2017.
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Information of magnetic data that can be contributed to this project from each member country by the end of March 2017.
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Acceptance of (digital and analogue) newly contributed data from member countries by August 2017.
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Presentation of a draft magnetic anomaly map including all the newly collected data at the SC meeting in March 2018.
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Publication of the revised CD-ROM by the CCOP Annual Session in October 2018.
The Japan Delegation further updated the Meeting on the GSi Project. The Japan Delegation highlighted that the cooperation and contribution from all Member Countries are greatly appreciated to achieve the project’s second year workplan, as follows.
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Increase quantity and quality of the data on the GSi system.
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System development and improvement (make a web services formulation team in CCOP)
