Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda shakes hands with AIT President Said Irandoust at a meeting in Manila on 25 August 2006.
AIT President Said Irandoust traveled to Manila 24-25 August 2006 to meet with Asian Development Bank executives and AIT alumni. Dr. Bindu Lohani, director general, Regional and Sustainable Development Department of the ADB, who is a former AIT faculty member and alumnus, helped coordinate the visit and played an instrumental role in all of the arrangements and meetings. President Irandoust was accompanied by Ambassador Hiroshi Ota, former Japanese ambassador to Thailand and member of the AIT Executive Committee. The president presented a new model of ASEAN ownership of AIT in which the ADB could play a part. He also gave a presentation on the role of science and technology in development and discussed ways in which the ADB and AIT might collaborate, including a proposal for human resource development in Azerbaijan that could be used in other Asian nations.
On 25 August, the president And Ambassador Ota met with ADB President Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda together with Dr. Bindu Lohani, director general, Regional and Sustainable Development Department of the ADB, who is a former AIT faculty member and alumnus.
The president shared details of the strategic development plan, discussed various possibilities for ADB-AIT interaction and the potential of the ADB becoming an owner of AIT under the proposed governance and ownership model. Mr. Kuroda was supportive of the proposal and positive in finding ways in which the bank could further assist AIT in its development.
The president also met with Mr. Xianbin Yao, deputy director general, Central and West Asia Department to discuss a proposal called “Knowledge and Human Resources Development at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Republic of Azerbaijan,” which AIT is developing with the government of Azerbaijan.
In follow-up to discussions with the ADB, the possibility of using the Azerbaijan case as an example to scale up the project to include the other Central Asia countries and Caucasian Republics as well namely, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will be considered. Possible links to this project with the Republic of Korea initiated E-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund were also discussed with Mr. Dan Boom, principal knowledge management specialist at ADB, who is the contact person for the E-Asia project. The proposal will be revised accordingly in consultation with ADB, Azerbaijan and the other Central Asia countries and Caucasian Republics.
The president gave a presentation to the Asian Development Bank on the role of science and technology in development. A copy of presentation online at https://oldweb.ait.ac.th/interimpage/AIT_user/about_ait/presentations.asp
Prof. Irandoust also had the opportunity to meet with AIT Alumni Association Chapter members. Mr. J.P. Sianghio (SOM ’91), president of the AITAA-Philippines Chapter and alumni members presented the president with a token gift.
The president met with Prof. Ricardo P. Pama, former vice president for academic affairs and development, who also served as an AIT faculty member and is an AIT alumnus. The Commission on Higher Education in the Philippines is currently in the process of revising the engineering curriculum of all its universities and Prof. Pama has offered to explore ways in which AIT could assist through capacity development. Prof. Pama has also offered to mobilize support in partnership with the alumni for AIT’s proposed ownership model in which ASEAN countries as a group would be initial core owners of AIT.
ADB officials present at Prof. Irandoust’s lunch meeting were: Geert van der Linden, vice president for knowledge management and sustainable development; Bindu N. Lohani, director general, Regional and Sustainable Development Department; H. Satish Rao, director general, East Asia Department; Juan Miranda, director general, Central and West Asia Department; Philip Erquiaga, director general, Pacific Department; and Stephen Curry, advisor, Southeast Asia Department.