KOREA INSTITUTE OF GEOSCIENCE AND MINERAL RESOURCES

The 80th CCOP Steering Committee Meeting in Jeju Island

The 80th CCOP Steering Committee Meeting was convened on April 3-6, 2023 at the Hotel Grand Josun Jeju in Jeju Island, the Republic of Korea, hosted by Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM). It was the first time in 5 years to host the CCOP Steering Committee Meeting in Korea since KIGAM had held the 54th CCOP Annual Session & 71st Steering Committee Meeting in Busan, Korea in 2018.

CCOP stands for "Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia", and it is the international intergovernmental organization that has made outstanding contributions to the sustainable economic and social development of East and Southeast Asia and to the improvement of the quality of life of local people. CCOP is consisted with 16 member countries* including Korea, and 14 cooperating countries*. For now, a Director of CCOP Technical Secretariat(TS) is Dr. Young Joo Lee, who was the Director of the Global Cooperation Division at KIGAM.

*member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Thaliland, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and Mongolia

*cooperating countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Sweden, United Kingdom and Untied States of America

This 80th CCOP Steering Meeting was attended by about 60 delegates from 15 member countries including Dr. Shinsuke Nakao, a Vice-Chairperson of CCOP Steering Committee, Mr. Ioannis Abatzis and Dato' Yunus Abdul Razkak, a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the CCOP Advisory Group(AG), and the Director and staffs of the CCOP Technical Secretariat(TS). Also, Mr. Hee-hyun Kim, a Vice Governor for Political Affairs of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, visited in person and delivered a welcome address to the delegates.

KIGAM has been conducting technology transfer for GDR systems containing tons of research know-how of KIGAM to the Philippines and Vietnam since December 2022. Furthermore, KIGAM is planning to support additional technologically developing countries with constructing and managing of the management system of geological samples and analysis data.

Dr. Pyeong-Koo Lee, a President of KIGAM and a Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to CCOP, emphasized that "CCOP is playing an important role in coping with climate changes for Asian countries including our country, Korea. We will also strive to solve the global problems in relation to Geoscience and mineral resources through diverse cooperation with the CCOP member countries."