Mr. Sam stated that he was looking forward towards meeting experts on
coastal areas and environmental education and hoped that AIT’s
experience would be very helpful in charting the course of
environmental education in DPR Korea. The country is prone to flooding
since it has a large mountainous region along with a huge coastline. He
identified disaster management as one of the priority issues for his
country.
Mr. Sam revealed that their country is preparing a National Action
Plan for Environmental Education and Awareness (NAPEEA). The country is
also trying to strengthen the capacity for environmental education in
its universities. EEA was established by the Government of the Republic
of Korea and UNEP in 2009. It seeks to strengthen the national capacity
on environmental education and awareness and increase human resources
in the field of environmental protection and natural resource
management.
AIT President Said Irandoust remarked that AIT has considerable
expertise in training of trainers who can act as agents of change. He
also highlighted the initiatives of AIT including a UN endorsed ASEAN
Regional Center of Excellence for Millennium Development Goals
(ARCMDG); 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) Knowledge hub along with ADB;
AIT-UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP);
Yunus Center at AIT as well as Corporate Social Responsibility Center
at AIT.
Apart from Mr. Sam, the delegation from DPR Korea comprised of Prof.
Choe Ho Jong, Professor, Department of Oceanography, Faculty of Science
on Global Environment, Kim II Sun University; Prof. Jang Kyong Ju,
Profesor and Vice Chief, Centre of Engineering, Pyongyang University of
Construction and Building Materials, Pyongyang and Ms. Ri Hye Ryon,
Project Officer, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education.
They were accompanied by Mr. Purna Rajbhandari, Senior Program Officer
and Ms. Putri Satyanugraha of AIT-UNEP RRC.AP.
The AIT team comprises of Dr. Nitin Afzulpulkar, Dean, School of
Engineering and Technology (SET); Dr. Dr. Mokbul Morshed Ahmad,
Associate Dean (Academic Affairs), School of School of Environment,
Resources and Development (SERD); Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, Coordinator,
Energy Program (SERD); Dr. Pennung Warnitchai, Coordinator, Disaster
Preparedness, Mitigation and Management (SET); Dr. Mukand Singh Babel,
Coordinator, Water Engineering and Management (SET); Dr. Oleg Shipin,
Coordinator, Environmental Engineering and Management (SERD); Dr.
Rajendra P. Shreshta, Associate Professor, SERD; Dr. Pritam K.
Shreshta, Head, External Relations and Communications Officer (ERCO)
and M. Tenzin Rabgyal, Program Officer, ERCO.
