Tainan, Taiwan
March 23, 2007
The 40th Board meeting of
AVRDC — The World Vegetable
Centre successfully concluded on Thursday
this week. It provided a very intensive week of discussion,
guidance and decision making for the Center
- not unlike a management boot camp. The leadership of the
Center was encouraged and the Center was under
scrutiny from representatives of its founding countries and our
best scientific peers from around the world.
As a result of the week-long
meeting, many major decisions have been made. The Charter of the
Center has
been updated and modified so that we will officially become the
"World Vegetable Center", the budget for
2007 which is 20% higher than 2006 and a new position paper on
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have
been approved while the process of the External Program and
Management Review (EPMR) has been finalized. The Center will be
moving to set up a system of global variety trials and
develop new corporate branding. There were also discussions
about the Medium Term Plan and The Global Horticulture
Initiative (GlobalHort). The Board strongly commended the
Center's leadership for its performance.
In addition to viewing the
facilities and trial work of ARC, the Board also met with
representatives of ASEAN. They are keen for us to provide
technical advice to ASEAN and to help with training and project
development in the region. It was a very positive endorsement of
the work of the Center in the region.
The meeting was followed by a day
for Center leadership in headquarters and the regions to all
meet together for the first time to work on issues of both
global and regional importance. |
