Progress towards US-AEP's development agenda was made March 16-20, during a conference on economic transformation and the environment sponsored by Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts) in association with The Policy Group at US-AEP. US-AEP Executive Director Peter Kimm attended several meetings during the week and gave the inaugural address on behalf of USAID Administrator Brian Atwood. Kimm later commented that The Policy Group has "successfully built a partnership among government, corporate, and nongovernmental policy leaders."

The conference was designed to strengthen understanding of the premises for a "clean revolution" and solidify U.S.-Asian institutional partnerships. One of the highlights of the event was the first meeting of authors for the Framing Papers, a joint project of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Clark University. The Framing Papers will articulate and promote the case for a clean revolution, with the aim of influencing senior government officials, business leaders, and leading policy research institutions. Participating institutions included CSIS; Clark University; Thai Development Research Institute, Bangkok; Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore; Institute for Environmental Development (LESTARI), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; International Resources Group and Winrock International of Washington, DC; Greening of Industry Network and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts; Tellus Institute, Boston, Massachusetts; and Nautilus Institute, Berkeley, California. (Framing Paper authors from the National University of Singapore and Yale University New Haven, Connecticut, were unable to attend this meeting.) An advisory panel for the Framing Papers--consisting of representatives of General Motors, Asian Development Bank, Polaroid, Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) of Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), GE Capital, Lucky Gold Star Korea, US-AEP, University of Southern California, and Delft University, Netherlands--reviewed the authors' progress.

The week closed with a discussion of potential sources of private funding, and included the participation of Bernard Wasow of the Ford Foundation as well as the members of the advisory panel.

On March 24, US-AEP/Taiwan held an Environmental Exchange Program (EEP) workshop on sustainability for representatives of Taiwan's printed circuit board industry. The event--which was co-sponsored by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Taiwan Electronics Association--enabled five U.S. firms to present case studies and alternative techniques to an audience representing almost 100 local companies. Industry attendees and the Taiwan EPA hailed the event as a great success, not only for the information shared but also for the cooperative manner in which "regulator" and "regulated" worked together to find sustainable practices. EEP is managed by the Institute of International Education.

US-AEP/Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department (EPD) organized a hazardous waste management workshop for 60 EPD officials--twice the expected number of attendees. Dr. Gomes Ganapathi, Principal Remediation Specialist at Bechtel and featured speaker, presented several video case studies on hazwaste management. US-AEP/Hong Kong also arranged a meeting between Dr. Ganapathi and Mr. Hutchinson, Chairman of AmCham's Environmental Committee, and organized a March 12 site visit for workshop attendees to the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre at Tsing Yi Island.