AIT-Ethiopia partnership on the horizon


From left; Mr. Tenzin
Rabgyal
, Program Officer, ERCO; Dr. Joseph
Most

of the Engineering Capacity Building Program (ECBP)/GTZ; Dr.
Pritam
Shrestha
, Head of ERCO; and Prof. Sudip
Rakshit
, Vice President for
Research.

AIT recently welcomed the visit of Dr. Joseph Most of the
Engineering Capacity Building Program (ECBP)/ German Technical
Cooperation (GTZ)
. Dr. Joseph Most met with AIT officials on 5
March 2009 to explore possibilities for an agreement
between AIT and Ministry of Capacity Building, Ethiopia, represented by
its Engineering Capacity Building Program. Aside from his role as
manager of GTZ, he also represents the Technical and Vocational
Education and Training Network (TVET) Reform Programme of
Ethiopia
.

AIT was represented in the discussions by the following faculty and
staff members:
 
Prof. Sudip Rakshit, Vice President for
Research
Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Dean-School of
Engineering & Technology (SET)
Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, Dean-School of Environment,
Resources & Development (SERD)
Dr. Pritam Shrestha, Head-External Relations and
Communication Office (ERCO)
Dr. Naveed Anwar, Associate Director for Asian Center for Engineering
Computations and Software (
ACECOMS), SET faculty member
and project coordinator for the AIT-BU Partnership Project
Dr. Bonaventura H.W. Hadikusumo, Field coordinator of
SET's Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Management
(CEIM)
Mr. Sonny Saw, Assistant to the Dean-SET
Mr. Tenzin Rabgyal, Program Officer, ERCO

It is expected that the Institute and Ethiopia's Ministry of
Capacity Building, represented by its Engineering Capacity Building
Program (ECBP), will soon sign a Memorandum of Agreement
(MoA) for up to 80 scholars from Ethiopia to pursue
their master and doctoral studies at any one of AIT's three
postgraduate schools. Faculty exchange programs between AIT and
Ethiopian universities are also planned. Dr. Most added that he was
willing to assist AIT in establishing direct partnerships with
universities in Ethiopia.

“ECBP is following a unique approach to economic and industrial
development. Working in four different reform fields, from private
sector development and quality infrastructure to technical and higher
education,  the program offers sustainable solutions to Ethiopia’s
challenges,“ said Dr. Most.