January 21-24, the Greening of Industry Network, in collaboration with the US-AEP, held its ninth Annual International Conference in Bangkok. The theme was �Sustainability at the Millennium: Globalization, Competitiveness and the Public Trust.� The leadership of the Network acknowledged the Bangkok event as its most successful, with more than 500 participants from around the world, and a roster of key decision makers from government, business and civil society. Distinguished speakers included Dr, Supachai Panichapakdi, Deputy Prime Minister and Director General designate of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health Korn Dabbaransi, Mr Jan Pronk, Minister of Environment from the Netherlands, President of Chulalongkorn University, Dr. Tatchai Sumitra, U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Richard Hechlinger and Mr. Peter Kimm, Executive Director of the U.S. � Asia Environmental Partnership.

All of the speakers and sessions at the four-day event focused on the need for a transformative vision of the environment, whether captured by the words �greening of industry, clean revolution or sustainability.� Deputy Prime Minister Korn Dabbaransi made the point that the combination of rapid economic growth and �grow now and clean up later� development strategies in Asia has resulted in the depletion of natural resources, mounting energy and water scarcities, materials-intensive production, polluted rivers and groundwater supplies and unhealthy air in most cities.

US-AEP Executive Director Peter Kimm argued that nowhere in the world is the challenge of changing course more urgent than in rapidly industrializing Asia. This requires a shift to patterns of economic development that are much less intensive in the use of energy and materials and in the production of pollution and waste per unit of output. Such a shift will also reduce costs. The greater part of the region is in the midst of, not the end, of an industrial- urban development transition unparalleled in scale and intensity.

And it is this shadow of the future that Dr. Supacahi said demands a new policy response. Given the continuing major shift from agriculture to industry, and from rural areas into cities, the critical challenge in Asia is to reduce substantially the energy, water, materials, pollution and waste intensity of industrial-urban economic activity. And it was against this agenda that the principal speakers congratulated the Greening of Industry Network and U.S. � Asia Environmental Partnership for their work in organizing the Conference. US-AEP and GIN-Asia unveiled a joint research project that was developed in large part by Owen Cylke and Jay Patchen of US- AEP�s Policy Group. The "Eco-Industrial Index," gauges eco- industrial efficiency, by measuring carbon emissions, water pollution, commercial energy use, and industrial output, and constructing an index that indicates the level of environmental performance in a country. The index has already appeared in the Singapore Strait�s Times, and will be featured in The Economist, as part of its "Economic Indicators" page of statistics and tables.

The Department of Commerce�s Commercial Service Weekly Report has highlighted US-AEP successes in recent editions.

US-AEP and CS Bangkok advocacy was essential to Modern Asia Environment�s (MAE) efforts to obtain Thai government approval to develop Thailand�s first sanitary landfill for industrial nonhazardous waste. MAE, a U.S. firm which is backed by OPIC�s Global Environment Fund, had tried unsuccessfully for six months to access the Thai solid waste handling market. US-AEP/CS Bangkok and OPIC held several meetings with the Thai government, wrote a letter of support, and urged senior Thai pollution control officials to attend a decisive expert committee meeting. MAE credits US-AEP support with breaking the bureaucratic logjam within the Thai government. This project is expected to result in U.S. exports of over $1.2 million in equipment and services.

CSG�s State Environmental Initiative (SEI) will be sending a delegation to observe and participate in the activities of SEI projects in India and Nepal. Members will be visiting projects developed by California, Kentucky, Colorado, and New Mexico, involving partners in Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Nepal, between February 8 and 23, 2001.

Cheryl Chang is the new Program Coordinator for EEP. working primarily on exchanges for Thailand and Vietnam. Cheryl comes to EEP from DAI, where she was working on the GenderReach Project. She has a degree in International Relations, with a Minor in Chinese, from UC Davis, and she has spent time working and studying abroad in China. Cheryl has also worked as an Environmental Intern at the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) in Sacramento, CA.

Policy Forum Update 

The next Policy Forum will be held on February 20, 2001. Dr. Royce Hanson and Mr. Jason Freihage of the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus, will discuss "Developing Indicators: A Reporting System for Measuring the Achievement of Maryland�s Smart Growth Goals". Dr. Hanson and Mr. Freihage have developed a set of �outcome indicators� to measure the effects of the Smart Growth program on the way Marylander�s live, work, relate to natural resources use and their effects on the environment. The meeting will be in the US- AEP Office at 1720 Eye Street, NW, Suite 700, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. For more information, contact Brenda Bateman at (202) 835- 0333, ext. 104 or bbateman@usaep.org.

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