On 1 October 2007, AIT President Said Irandoust participated in the opening ceremony of a training program entitled "Capacity Building in Poverty Mapping in the ASEAN Member Countries", which was organized and conducted by the Geoinformatics Center. The project is funded by the ASEAN Foundation under the Japan-ASEAN Solidarity Fund. Mr. Daisuke Okabe, First Secretary, Embassy of Japan, and Ms. Renelle Ivy Adan from the ASEAN Foundation also attended the event. There were 19 participants from statistical and planning agencies in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam who took part in the first leg of the Phase I of the program.
The goal of the training / workshop, which runs for two years in two phases, targets skill development of the participants in poverty mapping and intervention analysis in GIS environment. The total budget of this program is US$ 280,000. A number of international agencies including World Bank have shown great interest in the execution, in-country capacity development, regional cooperation, and the outcome of the program.
Dr. Lal Samarakoon, Visiting Senior Scientist in School of Engineering and Technology (SET); former JICA seconded expert to AIT, Dr. Junichi Susaki; and Dr. Manzul Hazarika, from the Geoinformatics Center, are actively involved in this important initiative which has received strong support from the Embassy of Japan.