82. The representative from SEAFDEC stated that the Council would like to continue to cooperate with NACA as the objectives of the NACA and AQD were similar. However, as AQD is also facing financial difficulties and has to reduce its staff, it will be necessary to review the cooperative programme and change the agreement between the two organizations when NACA becomes an inter-governmental organization. He said he wished NACA well in its efforts to further contribute to the development of aquaculture in the region. The full text of the SEAFDEC statement appears as Annex XIV.
83. The representative of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas informed the PGC that it had managed to eliminate many of the problems in the implementation of the degree programme in relation to admission, training schedules, field trips and other matters, and that final agreement for mutual benefit can be expected. UPV realizes its obligations in providing its commitments to NACA and despite certain difficulties, its relationship with NACA should continue to serve the interests of Asian aquaculture. The full text of the statement of the UPV representative appears as Annex XV.
84. The Coordinator of the ASEAN Small-Scale Coastal Fisheries Development Project stated that the activities of this project and the NACA/SEAFARMING Demonstration Project had many things in common. Therefore, it will be for the greater benefit of the countries participating in these projects if there was collaboration and coordination in the implementation of their project activities. She said she would be glad to cooperate with the NACA/ Seafarming Project to achieve common goals and interests in ASEAN coastal fisheries development programmes in particular and in Asia in general. The NACA Coordinator responded that training courses would be jointly organized by the two projects to make it more cost-effective.
The full text of this project's coordinator's statement appears as Annex XVI.
85. The representative of ICLARM informed the PGC that it will endeavor to further develop collaborative activities with NACA institutions in fields of mutual interest while NACA develops its future activities in aquaculture research. With the expansion of ICLARM's training programmes, joint training activities with NACA will be a possibility. Existing collaborative arrangements with NACA cover library exchange and information flow between ICLARM and the Lead Centre libraries, which have always been excellent.
The statement of the ICLARM representative appears as Annex XVII.
86. The representative of IDRC explained that IDRC support is primarily focussed on training, research and information. It is increasing the proportion of its support for the development of training courses and training institutions in the Asian region, and is hopeful that increasing types of high quality training can be developed in selected institutions in the region, one excample being the short course on fish disease diagnostics that IDRC and NACA are jointly developing with UPM. IDRC continues to work closely with the one-year MAq programme at the RLCP and with the RLCC training courses, and partly supported the NACA socio-economics course in 1987. In research, much of the IDRC support is directly to various national and regional aquaculture centres, many of which are nodal or regional centres of NACA. It is awaiting a decision on the future of the AQUIS programme in connection with its discussions with NACA on future cooperation in information.
The full text of the IDRC representative's statement appears as Annex XVIII.
