At the Sixth Meeting of the Regional Scientific and Technical Committee during December 2005, a small working group comprised of the National Technical Focal Points from Vietnam and the Philippines, and the two expert members Dr. Ong Jin-Eong and Dr. Anond Snidvongs, was formed to discuss an approach to developing the proposal for a training programme in the context of the South China Sea Project.

The view of the small working group was that there was such a diverse range of requests and identified needs for training that it would be not be practical for the project to develop a training programme that attempted to meet all needs. In recognition of the complexity of the task of preparing a training programme for the project, a small sub-committee of the RSTC (comprising Mrs. Wahyu Indraningsih, Dr. Gil Jacinto, Dr. Suvaluck Satumanatpan, and Dr Ong Jin-Eong) was formed to prepare a proposal.

The sub-committee met in Bangkok, Thailand from 6-10 February 2006 and identified the need for a large range of training course, seminars, study tours, and staff exchanges. The draft programme will now be circulated amongst members of the RSTC and it is expected that the final programme will be made available to all project partners in March. It is anticipated that the Training and Capacity Building Component of the project will reach demonstration site managers and associated staff, community leaders at demonstration sites, staff of the Specialized Executing Agencies (SEA’s), and members of the national committees.

The PCU extends a sincere thank you to Dr Ong Jin-Eong (expert member of the RSTC), Dr. Gil Jacinto (National Technical Focal Point from the Philippines), and Dr. Suvaluck Satumanatpan (Chairperson of the Regional Working Group on Seagrass) for their efforts during the sub-committee meeting and ongoing contributions to the project. We all enjoyed having you in the office and look forward to seeing you again soon.