Transcript 5.
(3) Frances Lai, Southeast Asia Programme in Ocean Law, Policy and Management
The 3rd major discussion with an overseas expert of maritime issues was with Dr. Frances Lai, executive director at Canadian-funded Southeast Asia Programme in Ocean Law, Policy and Management (SEAPOL), in Thai. Dr. Lai's presentation was focused mainly on her recapitulation on SEAPOL's activities. SEAPOL, as its name well describes, specializes in legal features of maritime issues with particular emphasis on how to promote international cooperation on what legal bases.
3-3-3 Activity Summary and Comment
The 1997 project aimed to introduce overseas achievements but tended to lack elements of "research." To overcome this shortcoming, the 1998 project strived to investigate the current status of the Asia-Pacific region in terms of intellectual currents in the region's maritime and security policy thinking and research activities.
As already briefed above, the 1998 project invited maritime and security experts from the region and exchanged opinions with them. The 1998 also dispatched a delegation to Australia, one of the most advanced and active countries in maritime issues, and investigated the current status of the country's policy thinking and research activities through meetings with the country's major policy research institutes.
Through these activities, the 1998 project was able to collect useful information, to strengthen the existing relations with other policy study networks, to establish new relations both domestically and internationally, and to lay a groundwork for future study to promote freedom of navigation.
4 Research Proposals for the 1999 Project
The last section of this report will introduce proposals for future research raised by project members and other related comments and suggestions expressed by the members. These proposals and positive comments and suggestions will provide useful and important guidance for the future course of the whole project.
