HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 30th RCA GENERAL CONFERENCE

I. Opening

The outgoing Chairperson, IND (Mr. K. Raghuraman, National RCA Co-ordinator) gave the welcome remarks; he thanked the MSs for their support to IND during the past year and the RCA Secretariat for its efforts.

The Acting DIR-TCPA, Ms. Volkoff, welcomed the participants on behalf of the DG and DDG-TC and apologized for the absence of DDG-TC.  She spoke about the direction of RCA which has supported national priorities for the past 30 years, the 2003/2004 programme and other issues.  Some of the points referred to the following:

sustainability of nuclear institutes and cited a few examples;

substantive areas for future consideration by MSs such as on mutual recognition of NDT certification to help trade; the UN millennium declaration signed by all countries; nutrition related projects or aspects of prevention on a regional basis; and mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG)

the central criterion for the proposals for the 2003/2004 and need to look at results of project; the need for continuing umbrella projects; quick services; and building capability and self sustainability

interesting concept of the Lead country and room for improvement; the establishment of an RCA regional office to increase ownership of the programme and raise profile of RCA in the region; strengthen partnership with other organisations through TCDC, AFRA, and ARCAL;  and

evaluation exercise of 9 trained MSs who will do evaluation of RCA training events[1] and sought support and commitment from the national RCA representatives.

A copy of her talk is in Annex (2)

The DIR-NAPC in his talk, traced the brief history of RCA and his earlier involvement, expressed the opinion that RCA has provided resources both financial and expertise to serve national specific needs;  recognized that most countries have excellent nuclear and technical base and stressed the importance of nuclear research, which is important for RCA, sustains science and enthusiasm; and presents opportunities for those looking for intellectual challenges.  (See Annex 3 for a copy of his talk)

II. Election of Chairperson

The ROK delegation, seconded by INS, nominated Prof. Naiyyum Choudhury, RCA National Representative of Bangladesh, as the Chairperson.  The nomination was agreed by all delegates.

Prof. Choudhury made a short statement thanking the DIR-TCPA for her remarks and cited examples of successful projects in RCA to solve the problem and needs of the MSs.

III. Adoption of the report of the 23rd RCA Meeting of National representatives

IV. Matters arising from the 23rd RCA Meeting Report

The revised Table indicated the status of each of the action items (see Annex 5).  Several items were part of the meeting agenda.

Comments were raised, among other things, on the proposed format for the next RCA Annual Report which was to be discussed with AUL (section 3.2);  the feedback from MSs regarding the letter sent to UNDP (Section 3.4);  and on submitting names of the focal point for the country in Radiation Protection[3] (item 3.5).

V. Programme for 2001/2002

The overview of the RCA programme for 2001/2002 project cycle was presented including the budget for each sectoral area for the 2 year-period (see Annex 6).

Extrabudgetary contribution.  The status of the extrabudgetary contribution as of July 31 2001 is shown in Annex 7.

V.1. Activities in 2001

·  Regional activities in 2001.  The updated list of regional events in 2001 was distributed to the representatives (Annex 8).  There are 65 events proposed for implementation in 2001.  All the scheduled events are planned for implementation.[4]

Tripartite meeting with AFRA/ARCAL/RCA on 16 September 2001.  A draft agenda was circulated to MSs (Annex 9).  RCA would be taking over from ARCAL the chairmanship of the meeting in accordance with the agreement for a rotating chairmanship.  The meeting will discuss the progress of technologies agreed to be transferred among the regions, and share 2 success stories/projects with each other.  [5]The representatives from RCA were the following:  outgoing Chair (IND), current chair (BGD), future chair (ROK) TCDC Lead Country (MAL) and a MSs involved in the transfer of RCA technology (AUL)[6] RCA would present successful stories on Health Care and on research reactor utilisation.

Scientific forum on 18-19 September 2001.  The RCA participation included the panel display, brochures on RCA , and continuous electronic display on success stories in RCA. Further participation in the forum would be effected by assigning selected MSs to make interventions at the panel discussions/session.  The following were suggested to make interventions: BGD (on science, technology and development, CPR (on food security), INS (on health), ROK (on managing water resources ) and AUL (on matching needs and technologies).  A copy of the programme on the forum is in Annex 10.

V.2. Activities in 2002

The list of regional events for 2002 as well as proposed regional  events to be hosted by each MSs, was circulated (See Annex 11).  A table showing the comparison of regional events from 1999/2000 and 2001/2002 cycle was presented which indicated the number of events over the years.  There were some comments related to the absorptive capacity of the MSs and the agency (Acting DIR-TCPA);  on the need to conduct assessment of project objectives, accomplishment of technology transfer (PHI);  a suggestion to have cost free consultant to conduct such assessment (SH-TCAPS);  interest on successful stories and also project shortcomings (INS) .

VI. Programme for 2003/2004

The budgetary estimates for the programme (see Annex 11 ) as well as the summary of the various proposals under each sectoral area were presented.  A comparison of the agreement in Dhaka (for hard core funding) and the proposals presented is given below.

The meeting was informed that it was difficult to identify which projects would be hardcore and footnote a/ at this stage since the agency review has not taken place.  MSs were also expected to indicate which projects they would likely support financially.

IND informed about the results of the CoP-6 meeting ruling out nuclear power as a Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, but that countries can still consider nuclear power as a sustainable energy supply and an option for mitigating greenhouse gases emissions.

VII.     Establishment of RCA Regional Office

The paper from the task force was already circulated earlier to MSs and is in Annex 12.  ROK presented the main concepts and progress in this proposal. The office was needed to increase RCA ownership, increase awareness in the region on RCA, create partnership with other regional organisations and vehicle for reflecting regional needs.  AUL expressed support to the creation of the office in an interim measure.  Other MSs also support the office and commended ROK for the offer.

ROK is prepared to open the regional office in March 2002 if the MSs agree to its establishment.  JPN suggested an interim period of 2 years instead of 3 years. IND did not wish to open the candidates to other regions.

Several issues were still to be resolved such as on the following:

salary of the representative when not from Korea (CPR) and studying salary package which is not nationality dependent (IND)

qualifications and selection process of the candidates (INS, AUL,);

legal aspects - Korean laws and MSs laws should be considered also; liability and confidentiality (MAL)

if some of the staff need not be from Korea

 diplomatic status to be clarified, and issues on immunities and privileges (PHI,THA. MAL)

composition of advisory committee (CPR)

office should be self-supporting (AUL)

having a non-RCA person is not acceptable (IND)

ROK will revise the paper with assistance from the task force[8] which prepared the earlier version, will revise the paper.

VIII.            Extension of RCA Agreement

The RCA Co-ordinator informed that 7 countries had already agreed to the revised text (with proposed revision from JPN) of the extension of the 1987 RCA Agreement as of 15 September 2001 (see Annex 13).  He explained that the Agency will wait until end of September 2001 for other comments, after which a final version of the text of the extension will be prepared by the Agency.  The MSs will be asked subsequently to notify their agreement to this final text in writing on or before 11 June 2002, when the present agreement expires.

MAL expressed its agreement to the revised text and will send its formal agreement soon.

IX. Outsourcing Policy

The Acting DIR-TCPA informed that the agency policy on outsourcing is being finalized and it will be distributed to MSs for comments as soon as this is ready.

X. Role of Research in RCA Programme

The paper was tabled at the 23rd RCA Meeting in Dhaka in March 2001 and MSs were asked to submit comments for discussion at this 30th RCA GC.  IND appreciated the effort of JPN in preparing this paper together with AUL.

XI. Management of RCA

The paper from JPN was distributed to MSs prior to the meeting (Annex 14).  JPN explained that in its view RCA is doing well and did not intend to change current rules and guidelines but only proposing fine tuning.  He drew attention of MS to the important points in the paper to improve transparency, monitoring and evaluation of RCA activities.  PHI suggested to receive the feedback from the TOs.  THA and AUL suggested to adopt the paper and JPN will provide revised version based on comments received.

XII. Criteria for holding events outside the region.

A draft criteria was circulated in May 2001 by the secretariat.  Comments were received from SRL and AUL and a revised criteria was circulated in August 2001 to MSs for their comments (See Annex 15). There were some discussions on RCA MSs concern on receiving funding and the need to decide on a case by case and ensuring the no- commercial interests aspects of the event.

XIII. The 24th RCA Meeting of National Representatives.

ROK confirmed it will host the next meeting of the RCA tentatively on the last week of March 2002 and described some proposed activities to celebrate the 30th RCA Anniversary.  Some of the activities proposed were panel discussion and exhibition by each MSs, and forum for presentation of achievements such as a “nuclear congress”.

XIV. Other Business

30th anniversary celebration.

ROK already explained this above in item XIII.

 Regional and non-regional agreement projects

The agency position on this is still under study.  However the RCA Co-ordinator and SH-TCAPS explained how the two types of projects work and its mechanism, and that they are complementary.

Evaluation of RCA project activities

The Acting DIR-TCPA explained the process for conducting the evaluation of RCA training activities involving 9 countries - CPR, IND, INS, MAL, PAK, PHI, ROK, THA and VIE - which participated in a training workshop on evaluation.  She again requested support and commitment of the RCA representatives to allow their personnel to conduct this evaluation, which would be expected to be reported at the next RCA Meeting of National Representatives.

The Meeting ended at 1730hrs.

ACKNOWLEGMENT

The Extrabudgetary support of the INS Mission in the form of providing sound system services is much appreciated.