by Mohamed Razif Kamarudin

In the past, JICA Headquaters has held a series of conferences for JICA Alumni Associations throughout the world on a selective and occasional basis in Tokyo. The conferences brought together representatives of JICA Alumni Associations and provided them with the opportunity to talk, exchange ideas, and make recommendations to JICA headquarters on how to improve the role and contribution of JICA Alumni Associations; in particular, with regard to how these societies can complement JICA to better serve the countries to whom they provide foreign technical aid and assistance.

In May 1998, the JICA Alumni Society of Malaysia proposed and recommended that JICA consider sponsoring regional conferences for JICA Alumni Associations on a regional basis. Later, a team led by then vice president of the JICA Alumni Society of Malaysia, Mohamed Razif Kamarudin, visited JICA headquarters to followup and personally convey the request. Among the justifications were:

i. an opportunity for the JICA Alumni Associations in each country to play host and take on more meaningful role.
ii. reduced expenditures, as holding these conferences in Japan is expensive.
iii. a closer affinity among participants within a region.

Sooner than expected, JICA agreed to the proposal, and Malaysia was chosen as the venue and its Alumni the host society for the region. Held on November 20, 1999 at Nikko Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, the regional seminar brought together the alumni leaders of four countries in the region, namely Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Also present as observes were representatives from JICA Overseas Offices in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. Makoto Yamashita from JICA's General Affairs Department and the executive committee members and members of the JICA Alumni Society of Malaysia were also present. A total of 37 people attended.

The seminar was divided into two sessions and opened by Yoshihide Teranishi, the JICA Deputy Resident Representative in Malaysia, who believed that despite the seminar's small scale, it offered an auspicious start for bringing together representatives of the various alumni to discuss and exchange ideas for their mutual benefit and future partnerships into the next millennium. More importantly, JICA hoped to see the alumni complement JICA in implementing its various activities and cooperation locally with Japan and with the South-South region.

The morning session consisted of presentation of the country report by each of the four alumni societies and a multimedia presentation by the Alumni Society of Malaysia. The country reports mainly concentrated on the history of the various alumni, membership, publications, past activities, and future plans. The JICA Alumni Society of Malaysia has also prepared a presentation in CD-ROM version complete with the Alumni song.

During the afternoon session, challenges faced by respective country alumni associations were raised and discussed. The issues included measures to increase membership, to secure appropriate funding for the alumni activities, to improve
organizational structure for more efficient management and operation, and to improve the networking environment to benefit all alumni members.

Also the role of alumni in assisting JICA and the respective governments in the new millennium were discussed to develop a forward-looking JICA Alumni organization. In addition, some measures to improve the interaction between JICA Alumni Associations were discussed and agreed upon, such as having at least a biennial JICA Alumni Regional Seminar to promote understanding and cooperation among the members.

At the end of afternoon session, the participants of the JICA Alumni Regional Seminar adopted the following resolutions.

i. JICA Alumni Associations resolved that whilst funding from Japan will be constrained by new guidelines and policies, the alumni associations should adopt various innovative methods to raise sufficient funds to meet alumni's funding requirements in the future.
ii. JICA Alumni Associations should prepare themselves to face the challenges of the new millennium.
iii. The role of JICA Alumni Associations should be further enhanced to ensure that the associations provide valuable training input both to the governments of countries and to JICA.
iv. The remaining ASEAN countries not currently present should to be included at the next regional meeting.
v. A regional JICA Alumni Council will be formed, with the presidency to be rotated in favor of the host nation.
vi. The next Regional Alumni Meeting is to be held in the Philippines, subject to the approval of the board.
vii. All regional alumni members should host a web site.

The closing ceremony was in the form of a dinner show in which all participants were treated and entertained. Though it only lasted a day, the seminar was deemed a great, well-organized success.