The 63rd ASEAN COST Conference with the slogan “One community, one destiny”, was focused on following issues, that is renovation of the operational mechanism of ASEAN COST through implementation of ASEAN’s Plan of Action of S&T for the 2011-2015 period; implementation and development of Krabi initiative on “Future of Science, Technology and Innovation: plan by 2015 and vision of following years”; discussion of solutions to implement 6 flagship programs of ASEAN COST; strengthening cooperation on S&T with dialogue partners as China, Japan and the European Commission. Cooperation programs are expected to include joint S&T research projects, outstanding centers, conferences, workshops and professional forums.
In addition, the 63rd ASEAN COST Conference also approved some directions for the coming time as continuing research and development of joint S&T projects in ASEAN countries; establishing a group on ASEAN metrology; developing projects and exploiting China’s financing funds, at the same time strengthening cooperation relations with China; strengthening cooperation with the European Community; maintaining and developing S&T projects together research with Japan; establishing and implementing cooperative relations on community health with the United States.
Sessions of 9 sub-committees of ASEAN COST were also organized during this time. The sub-committees have reviewed 9 completed projects, 26 on-going projects, 42 projects which wait for funding and 10 new projects.
In this Conference, Vietnam has been successfully its roles as the Chairman of ASEAN COST for the 2011-2012 term and been highly appreciated by other countries. In addition to responsibilities of chairing COST’s official meeting sessions and meetings with dialogue countries, Vietnam has actively developed and implemented projects within ASEAN framework and actively contributed to activities of sub-committees.
When the Conference ended, Doctor Lê Đình Tiến, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Chairman of ASEAN COST on behalf of the Vietnamese delegation, expressed his thanks for cooperation and support from ASEAN member countries, ASEAN Secretariat provided for Vietnam over the past time.
It is known that ASEAN COST Conference is regularly organized every two year in member countries. Accordingly, the 64th ASEAN COST Conference would be organized in November 2012 in Dausalam, Brunei.
Vietnam has participated in ASEAN COST since 1995 right when Vietnam entered ASEAN. ASEAN COST has been established with purposes of promoting S&T cooperation activities among member countries in ASEAN.
Currently ASEAN COST has had 9 sub-committees, equivalent to ASEAN’s 9 key cooperation fields in terms of S&T: Sub-Committee on Food Science and Technology (SCFST); Sub-committee on Biology (SCB); Sub-committee on Meteorology and Geophysics (SCMG); Sub-committee on Micro-electronics and Information Technology (SCMIT); Sub-committee on Material Science and Technology (SCMST); Sub-committee on Marine Science and Technology (SCMSAT); Sub-committee on Non-conventional Energy Research (SCNCER); Sub-committee on Infrastructure and Resource Development (SCIRD); Sub-committee on Space and Applications (SCOSA).