January 23(Fri.) – 24(Sat.), 2009

Flexible International Exchanges: "JSPS International Forum : Roles of Universities in Community/Regional Development"

On 23 - 24 January, The Bangkok Office of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science held the "JSPS International Forum: Roles of Universities in Community/Regional Development". It was implemented under the Flexible International Exchanges Program of the Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology,"Strategic Program for Building an Asian Science and Technology Community".

At present large differences exist in the economies and infrastructures of Thailand’s central region around Bangkok and its outlying regions. Many national universities have been newly established in the country’s local areas for the purpose of providing hubs for regional development in areas of research and development, personnel training and industrial development. Thailand places high expectation in Japanese cooperation, especially in sharing its expertise on research and personnel training with the local universities.

At the same time, Japan desires to mobilize its own regional universities in aiding Thailand’s development and Southeast Asian regional development with Thailand as a hub. Though these Japanese national and public universities have the capacity to assist Thailand, they are not able to adequately do so because of a lack of information on Thailand’s needs.

Representatives of universities from both Japan and Thailand participated in this forum and gave presentations on regional issues and their activities to contribute to solutions. They also shared information on their activities to meet the specific needs of the region’s various societies.

Through fora like this one that establish cooperative relationships between national and public universities in Japan’s local regions and newly established universities in Thailand, Japan is better able to expand its research hubs to Thailand and Southeast Asia, while Thailand is able to strengthen the capabilities of its newly established universities. Moreover, such fora can be expected to widen the sphere of collaboration between two countries, previously centered major universities, while building a multi-tiered cooperative relationship.