Forty Years Of The Coordinating Committee For Geoscience - CCOP

SECTORS
GEO-RESOURCES GEO-ENVIRONMENT GEO-INFORMATION
MINERALS ENERGY GROUNDWATER
COASTAL
ZONE
PROGRAMMES
GEOHAZARDS
ENVIRONMENTAL
GEOLOGY
GEODATA AND
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
Figure 16. CCOP’s three Sectors and seven Programmes within which all its projects are
operated and managed. From 2006 each Sector will have its own Sector Manager at the
Technical Secretariat.
Box 5
Member Countries
The foundation of CCOP, initially with four Members Countries comprising China, Japan,
Korea and the Philippines took place with surprising speed and other Governments in the
region quickly realised the potential advantages of supporting such an organisation. At
CCOP’s third session, held in Seoul, Korea in 1967, it was noted that ECAFE had requested
the Committee to consider inviting other countries of the ECAFE region whose territories
bordered the Pacific to join as soon as possible. Later in 1967, representatives of Thailand
and the Republic of Vietnam were welcomed as observers to the fourth session of CCOP.
Both countries attended the 1968 session as full members, whilst Indonesia and Malaysia
attended that session as observers prior to becoming full members. Cambodia was formally
admitted in 1969. Within just four years CCOP had grown to include eight separate Member
Countries. Further growth was set to continue. In 1973, Singapore was accepted as a member
and two years later the Pacific Islands Trust Territory joined. In 1976 Papua New Guinea
became the tenth Member Country. In 1979, The Peoples Republic of China attended their
first Annual Session after becoming the accepted legal representatives of China in the UN in
1971.
With the passage of time, the observer of today may see the rapid early growth in
membership of CCOP as part of a smooth progress towards the current total membership of
eleven countries. Forty years ago however, parts of south-east Asia were experiencing farreaching
political change and this is mirrored in the names forming the membership list of
CCOP, and the attendance at Annual Sessions during that time. In 1966 for example, China
was represented in the UN by the government of the Republic of China and they therefore, as
a member of ECAFE, were the ‘China’ referred to as a founding member of CCOP. In 1971,
however, ‘China’ was to become represented in the United Nations by the Peoples Republic
of China who became the sole legitimate representative of China at the UN and therefore at
CCOP, attending Annual Sessions from 1979. Similarly the ‘Republic of Vietnam’, who
became a member in 1968, was that part of Vietnam then known in the outside world as
‘South Vietnam’ and excluded the separately-governed north. This would change after the
unification of the country in 1975 when it became ‘The Socialist Republic of Vietnam’
though it was not represented at the Annual Sessions on a regular basis until the 1990s. Its
neighbour, Cambodia, experienced a coup d’etat in 1970, just a year after their admission to
membership of CCOP, and took no further part in CCOP activities for almost twenty years.
Then, following the years of absence, Cambodia, known during much of this time as the
‘Democratic Republic of Kampuchea’, attended the 24 th session of CCOP in 1987 and has
since played a full and active role in CCOP.
28
A World of Difference