East New Britain Province’s town centre, Kokopo is playing host to the 50th annual conference of the Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia.
The Committee’s 23rd Steering Committee Meeting will also be held in Kokopo from the 19th to the 25th of October.
The committee is now only hopefully that the K2 million approved by the National Executive Council (NEC) last year to host the conference is released in the first quarter for 2014.
In preparation for the meeting in October, the committee headed by the Director Dr. Adichat Surinkum and Senior Officers from the Technical Secretariat flew into Kokopo for a familiarisation visit.
The visit was specifically for the officials to have a look at conferencing facilities, hotels and other infrastructure available in Kokopo.
Among other facilities, the group inspected the Gazelle International Hotel and its conference facilities and the Vunapope Catholic Mission Conference centre.
The visitors also paid a courtesy visit to Office of the Governor for East New Britain Province.
The visitors were also taken to the country’s volcano and seismic activity observatory above Rabaul town, which is a branch of the Department of Geohazards Management.
Over 200 participants from thirteen member countries including Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan and Korea will be present.
The conference is supported by fifteen cooperating countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada and Denmark.
The NEC approved K2 million last year to fund the conference.
Hopes are high the funding will be released in the first quarter for 2014.
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