The “2nd JSPS Alumni Association Presidents Meeting in South and Southeast Asia” was held on February 21 in Bangkok, organized by JSPS Bangkok office. This was the first in-person meeting since the previous sessions were conducted online. Representatives of the seven alumni associations under the jurisdiction of our office attended the meeting.(India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Philippines, Nepal*, Indonesia, and Malaysia).

Under the facilitation of Dr. Sukanya Aimimtham, President of the Thai Alumni Association, who served as host for this meeting, Director Yoshio Otani proposed the establishment of a Regional JSPS Alumni Association Assembly (R-JAAA) to expand this meeting, which was unanimously approved by the participants. Subsequently, the meeting was titled the 1st R-JAAA Representatives Meeting, where representatives from each alumni association discussed the challenges they face and their expectations for R-JAAA. The meeting also featured discussions on promoting research exchange among multiple countries. R-JAAA aims to build a collaborative framework across multiple countries through continuous meetings in the future.

In the following invited lecture, Assistant Professor Eri Ikeda from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi spoke on the topic “South and Southeast Asia in the world economy,” focusing on the global and regional economies, with a special emphasis on South Asia and Southeast Asia.

*Online participation.

Meeting participants

Scene of the meeting

Dr.Eri Ikeda giving her lecture