AIT welcomes delegation from Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan
On 23 March 2007, Prof. Said Irandoust, AIT President, welcomed a group of delegation from Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan (http://www.iges.or.jp/): Professor Hironori Hamanaka, Faculty of Environmental Information, Keio University/ Member of the Board of Directors, IGES, together with Mr. Hideyuki Mori (Vice President and Long-term Perspective and Policy Integration Project Leader, IGES, and Dr. Peter King (Senior Policy Advisor, IGES). Professor Hamanaka assumed the Chairmanship of the IGES Board from 1 April 2007. Prior to his current position, Professor Hamanaka was the Vice-Minister for Global Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of the Environment, Japan .
The visit of the delegation was arranged by Mr. Surendra Shrestha , UNEP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, an AIT alumnus, who accompanied the delegation.
Professor Kimio Uno , Professor Emeritus, Keio University , who is working closely with AIT in the development of platforms for the flexible delivery of courses, also joined the meeting.
During the meeting, AIT, IGES and UNEP have considered various areas of possible collaboration among the three parties. IGES has an out-posted office at AIT which is housed under the UNEP Regional Resource Center -Asia Pacific Office located in the Outreach Building . IGES will into the future be putting greater emphasis in the areas of waste management, renewable energy (bio-fuels), organic agriculture etc. AIT, IGES and UNEP also discussed ways in which there could be linkages between some of their thematic research areas outlined in our strategic development with the Ministry of Environment of Japan 's future strategies and plans for the Asia Pacific region.