Secretary Alberto Romulo, Executive Secretary,
Office of the President of the Philippines,
Your Excellency Dr.Edilberto De Jesus,
Secretary for Education of the Philippines,
Excellencies Ministers of Education
and members of the SEAMEO Council,
Honorable High Officials and Associate Members,
Members of Diplomatic Corps,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

          It is an honor for me to represent the SEAMEO Council, and to address this distinguished gathering in the presence of Secretary Alberto Romulo, Executive Secretary of the Office of the President, representing the Philippines President. May I, on behalf of the SEAMEO Council, express sincere concern and sympathy for the incident at Davao, and convey our support and encouragement to the Government of the Philippines in dealing with terrorism. We also warmly thank the Philippines Government for the excellent preparations and arrangements made in hosting this conference.

          Since our last Conference held in Chiang Mai in March 2002, Thailand has had the honor of serving as the President of the Council, and during the past 5 months, it has been my privilege to perform this important function. May I take this opportunity to express
my gratitude to all my colleagues, Ministers of Education of the member countries, many of whom have been in the Education portfolio for many years and have previously served as Council President. I am particularly grateful for your cooperative spirit and for the cordial invitation and reception extended, to enable me to achieve the goals of my duty in SEAMEO.

          May I also express my warm appreciation to the SEAMEO Secretariat, especially to the Director, for the understanding and support given to me throughout my tenure of office. I equally thank the officials at my Ministry of Education, for their coordination, and for their dedication to the work and accomplishment of the SEAMEO Council President.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

          We all realize that education is, and has been for the past decades, a focus of worldwide interest and scrutiny. In all parts of the world, as in our own region, education has been challenged with a crisis of faith, as well as with new hopes and aspirations.

          As we entered the new Information Age, the role of science-based technologies has become more pronounced. All countries therefore need to give high priority to improving their systems of education, to ensure that all children and adults, are provided with access to the essential knowledge, skills and information they need in order to survive the increasingly complex demands of our societies.

          With the advent of the new millenium, and with globalization a reality in almost all aspects of life, education, even at the national level, needs to address the major global and cross-bordering challenges of our time:--- alleviating poverty, promoting sustainable development, protecting the environment, combating the spread of diseases, fostering a spirit of mutual understanding, tolerance and peace, and promoting cultural heritage, identity and values.

          National education policy makers in all regions have thus been reviewing their education systems and deliveries, and trying to improve them in order to respond to the new imperatives. In so doing however, they need to look outward and around, to see how other countries are reorganizing their education, what good practices are being adopted to enhance the quality and equity in education, what research findings can be suitably used to help guide their education and development, and what linkages and collaborative projects can be promoted cross-nationally and regionally.

          In Southeast Asia, we are fortunate that SEAMEO has been providing this mechanism for collaboration and exchange, and promoting educational, scientific and cultural research and training for the past 37 years. Though I am new to SEAMEO, I have learned from my intensive and purposeful visits to the member countries, that SEAMEO is indeed a huge network of viable regional and national centres, with numerous qualified human resources, a vast pool of educational, scientific, technological, and cultural expertise, and a wealth of historical and biodiversity resources. These are our unique strengths, with great potentials for sustainable development.

          Our respective governments, with the help from friendly countries and interested agencies, have over the past three decades, invested in building and nurturing SEAMEO. We therefore should maximize the effectiveness in mobilizing and utilizing its networks and resources to meet our current and future development needs. I believe that together, and through SEAMEO, our region and people can create yet a much stronger community that can cope and overcome the complex challenges of the present and the future.

          Yes, indeed, SEAMEO is already a community of educators, academics, and scientists. And though our work is important as it provides the very foundation for sustainable human development, it seems that SEAMEO is not yet sufficiently visible or fully appreciated outside our own circles. I believe that we have the potential to further build upon our past strengths, by expanding our linkages and partnership with some organizations that have a common vision, and shared values and interests. For “strategic alliance”, if I may borrow the term from the business sector, is a key factor to survival and sustainability. It promotes strategic synergy and creates win-win options for the partners involved.

          I believe that SEAMEO and ASEAN should form an alliance, because ASEAN, a younger organization in our region with the same membership, though political and economic in nature, is increasingly expanding its activities in Education, Science, and Culture. I believe it would serve the best interest of our region if SEAMEO and ASEAN could work out a clarity of common purposes in the alliance, with the strengths of one partner complementing the weaknesses of the other.

          During my visit to Indonesia as the President of SEAMEO Council, I took the initiative of calling on the ASEAN Secretary-General. I raised this issue and left with him the germ of idea that at the next ASEAN Leaders Summit, the president of the SEAMEO Council might be invited to present to the leaders on SEAMEO potentials and activities that are complementary to those of ASEAN. For example, SEAMEO could serve as an academic partner by accepting to conduct researches and organize tailor-made training courses as required by the ASEAN leaders. It can organize youth activities that will promote meaningful learning opportunities for our young generations.

          Your Excellency, Mr. Secretary for Education of the Philippines, may I have the permission of leaving this grain of thought with you. As it also happens that the next President of the SEAMEO Council will be the Philippines.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

          As we move forward into a new era of development, we need to look for more innovative ways of delivering our services, considering the specific needs of certain member countries, such as those in the Greater Maekong Sub-region. Following my visits to those countries, I could perceive that their accelerated needs for development require them to train their manpower in certain areas at a pace not adequately met by the small quotas allocated to them by each of our Regional Centres. In this case, I suggest that a model of integrated in-country training services might be more economical and directly responsive to their particular development agenda, and interested donors might be ready to support this kind of package.

          On the other hand, SEAMEO need to look beyond our geographical boundary for new opportunities of cooperation. For example, many of our regional centres’ expertise and products are unique to Southeast Asia, and may have great value and interest to professional and academic consumers outside our region. Marketability of our products is something that we need to seriously plan, promote, and materialize, not only to help the regional centres become more self-sustained, but also to further enhance the professional credibility of our organization. I also believe that if our organization and its regional centres become more advanced in their development, they can serve to inspire the creation of new regional centres in the future, to meet the rapidly emerging needs in human resources development of our region. From what I foresee, there will soon be felt needs in the development of manpower in such areas as tourism, ICT, and marine science. I would like to suggest that, if these were to become real possibilities in the near future, the existing national institutes in the member countries specializing in these areas should be asked to pilot some regional projects and evaluated before a permanent decision can be made.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

          To conclude, I would like to thank all member countries, all regional centres, and the Secretariat once again for their kind cooperation, and for helping me to learn and appreciate the enormous potentials and the possible great contributions of SEAMEO. Although my term as President of the Council will end today, may I pledge a continued strong support and cooperation to my successor, and to all my fellow Ministers of Education whose friendship and cooperation I will cherish, and promise to reciprocate in the near future.

I thank you very much for your attention.
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