Head staff of the 21 SEAMEO Centres met in Bangkok from 24 to 26 June 2014 for the SEAMEO Centre Directors Meeting. It was a forum for head SEAMEO staff to report the progress and achievements of their respective centres during the 2013/2014 fiscal year. SEAQIS was represented by Dr Maman Wijaya, Deputy of Administration, Dr Indarjani, Deputy of Program and Lidya Sinulingga, Head of Personnel and Finance. The meeting highlighted the impending SEAMEO Golden Jubilee Celebration in 2015 at the secretariat level and across SEAMEO Centres. New collaborations with important associate members were also encouraged.
During the meeting, the SEAQIS staff presented a working paper related to its 2nd Five-Year Development Plan 2015/2016-2019/2020, which requested contributions and suggestions from the attendees to enrich the substance of the 2nd FYDP. To publicise SEAQIS’ acheivements, the staff discussed the programs which enhance the profile of the Centre, such as completion of the PRAISE Project and jointly conducted in-country science education training with the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre for South-South Cooperation under the auspices of UNESCO (ISTIC).
Duringthe networking session, the SEAMEO Secretariat approved the proposal to invite ISTIC Malaysia to present their profile and consider the forum as an opportunity to engage in networking with SEAMEO member countries. The meeting was extremely successful and will be very fruitful for the future of SEAQIS and all SEAMEO Centres.