Fellowship catalyzes 'Sister
Lake' partnership.
Mary Alisa Borre, coordinator of Vermont's Lake Champlain Basin Program,
participated in a US-AEP Environmental Fellowship to work with the Lake Toba
Heritage Foundation in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Borre shared with her
Indonesian counterparts information on the institutional management and
environmental protection measures being implemented by major industrial
facilities on Lake Champlain. During the two-week fellowship in November
1996, she also assisted in the development of public awareness materials in
support of public education campaigns for improved environmental management
of household wastes in cities surrounding Lake Toba. The fellowship has now
led to the development of a 'Sister Lake' relationship between Lake
Champlain and Lake Toba. This fellowship was arranged through the
Improving industrial
environmental performance in Asia.
The Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), under a
cooperative agreement with USAID's Global Bureau, held a successful two-day
seminar, entitled "Fostering a Clean Revolution among High Performing
Economies in Asia," for representatives from US-AEP's ten Asian target
countries. Participants in the seminar'which was held in Bangkok, Thailand,
February 24-25'included officials from government economic, industry, and
environment ministries, business associations, and nongovernmental
organizations. Consistent with US- AEP's Policy Framework program,
discussion focused on Asia's need to use all the tools available to improve
industrial environmental performance, i.e., government regulations and
market based incentives, global market pressures and opportunities such as
ISO 14000, and effective ways to apply community concerns and public
pressures. Sessions for the invited participants and observers from US-AEP,
World Bank, and USAID, centered around three case studies prepared by HIID:
1) an example of policy choices to reduce use of ozone depleting substances
under the Montreal Protocol; 2) a Thailand case study, based on a recent
survey of 530 industries, on policy implications of diverse industry
responses to environmental pressures; and 3) Indonesia's experience with its
pollution monitoring, rating, and public disclosure system (called PROPER),
being managed by its environmental agency. Participants from each country
exchanged practical policy experiences and priorities for affecting
industrial environmental performance and agreed that further dialogue is
important to spur future policy changes.
Philippine government endorses
CTEM info center.
The Clean Technology and Environmental Management (CTEM) Information
Center in Manila, Philippines, jointly sponsored by US-AEP and the
Philippines Business for the Environment, has been designated by the
Department of Trade and Industry's Bureau of Products Standards (DTI-BPS) to
be one of four one-stop information centers for the promotion of
Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and ISO 14000 in the Philippines.
Plans are underway to open three additional government-sponsored pilot
centers: two will be housed in DTI-BPS itself and the other will be located
in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Environmental
Management Bureau. Manila CTEM Information Center manager, Rico Rubio, met
with a central planning group February 27 to discuss resource materials for
the new centers.
How to do business with ADB.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) business opportunity seminars will be held
in five U.S. cities in March. This forum provides U.S. companies with the
rare opportunity to 'roll up their sleeves' with pioneering companies that
have successfully entered the Asia market. Two ADB specialists will speak on
consulting and procurement, followed by a day of one-on-one meetings with
business representatives. Cantwell Walsh, the U.S. Department of Commerce
(DOC) liaison to the ADB in the Philippines, will accompany the specialists
and be available for business meetings. The first seminar will be held in
Los Angeles, California, March 17-18, as part of the Asia-Pacific Business
Outlook Conference, which is sponsored by the University of Southern
California and DOC. The remaining seminars, organized by the respective DOC
district offices, will be held in Santa Clara, California, March 20-21;
Cleveland, Ohio, March 24-25; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 26-27; and
New Orleans, Louisiana, March 31-April 1. For more information, contact the
Multilateral Development Bank office via phone: 202-482-3399 or fax:
202-273-0927.
Update on ETNA.
As of December 1996, trade leads processed by US-AEP's Environmental
Technology Network for Asia (ETNA) reached 3129, with company matches
totaling 440,353. Korea has submitted the greatest number of
leads: 687 since the office opened in October 1993. Malaysia and Hong Kong,
with offices opening in subsequent months in 1993 and 1994, have tallies of
405 and 391, respectively, while Indonesian trade leads total 314,
Singapore: 311, Taiwan: 304, Philippines: 292, India: 194, and Thailand:
172. US-AEP's office in Sri Lanka, which opened in February 1996, has
submitted 59 trade leads. ETNA also recruited 43 new environmental companies
in December 1996 and 37 in January 1997 as members of the database, bringing
the total number of member companies to 1863.
Last call for Green Pages
listings.
As many of you know, US-AEP sponsors and helps distribute The Green
Pages, a source book of U.S. environmental suppliers of technologies and
services. The producers want to include as many U.S. environmental companies
as possible to make the 7th edition of the directory most useful. Listing
are free, though advertising space is also available for a fee. All listings
and ads will appear in the printed directory as well as on the Internet at
http://export.uswest.com this year. To request a listing or advertising
space, please call US WEST at 1-800-288-2582 prior to May 2, 1997.
Thank you and farewell to Joyce
Coffee.
US-AEP reluctantly announces the departure of Joyce Coffee,
who joined US- AEP as an intern in 1993, progressed quickly to become an
associate for the former Professional and Organizational Development
component, and went on to head US-AEP's operations in the Manila field
office. Joyce has brought her unique combination of passion for the
environment, love for Asia, and professionalism to all her positions at
US-AEP. We are indebted to her for the valuable contributions she made
during her four-year tenure to move the program toward its goal of improving
the Asian environment through the transfer of U.S. experience, technology,
and practice. Please join us in wishing her well as she goes on to pursue
volunteer work in Vietnam on March 14, then returns to the United States to
attend graduate school.
Welcome to...
...Albert Leung, who joins US-AEP as the Deputy Director of the Office of
Technology Cooperation in Hong Kong. Albert comes to the
program with nine years of industrial experience: two years of chemical
process control with a local printed circuit board manufacturer; five years
of sales & marketing with Union Carbide; and two years of chemicals &
plastics trading. He was trained as a chemical engineer with an emphasis on
polymer synthesis and technology. He says he's delighted to have this
opportunity and looks forward to his tenure with US-AEP being both enjoyable
and productive.
...Niranjan Man Singh Regmi, who will be assisting Greg Hills and Mark
West as part of US- AEP's Operations Team. Regmi is an experienced USAID
project officer and consultant; he has worked 17 years for USAID/Nepal on
forestry, dairy, and natural resource management projects. He is a graduate
of Tribhuvan University (Nepal) with a degree in agriculture education. He
has attended courses at the University of Arizona and Princeton in resource
development of watershed lands and public/international affairs.
