RP hosts 10th SCA conference

The Science Council of Asia (SCA) in its recently concluded 9th conference held at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore voted a Filipino medical doctor as its next president.

Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, president of the National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP) and concurrent executive director of the Philippine Council for Health R&D (DOST-PCHRD) was elected for the 2009-2010 term. He succeeded Prof. Hong Wanjin of the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) who assumed the position of the immediate Past-President in the SCA Management Board.

Other elected officers include Prof. B. Chadraa of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and Prof. Yoichi Muraoka of the Science Council of Japan as secretary general and treasurer, respectively.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. Montoya expressed confidence in the Philippine's hosting capability which equals that of ASTAR's. He also led the SCA group in conduct of the 10th SCA Conference in Manila, Philippines held on July 25-28, 2010 at the SOFITEL Philippine Plaza.

The 10th SCA Conference focused its discussion around the theme, "Meeting the Health Challenges in the Asia Pacific Region: Responding through an Integrated and Multidisciplinary Approach in Science and Technology." This was the first time that the SCA Conference focused on multi-disciplinary health issues and concerns such as tuberculosis, avian flu, swine flu, dengue, SARS, and the Ebola-Reston virus. These were discussed in light of climate change, globalization and its social and economic impacts.

The Science Council of Asia was founded in 2000 with the Philippines as one of its founding members. It is an international scientific organization in the Asia Pacific Region that brings together scientists and scientific organizations from all academic fields. Their annual scientific discussion serves as a forum for information exchange, collaboration and cooperation, as well as integrating emerging advances in science and technology for the improvement of the quality of human life.

Eleven countries compose SCA, namely Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Vietnam, India, Japan, China, Singapore, the Philippines and Mongolia.