The meeting was held on 27th July 2015 at the Avillion Admiral Cove Hotel, Port Dickson, Malaysia with the following objectives:

• To establish a Steering Committee for the Project
• To finalize details for identified project activities
• To discuss and finalize the budget for each activity
• To discuss and confirm the selection criteria for training workshop participants

The meeting was attended by 11 participants which comprised of NPPO representatives of 6 (six) ASEAN member states, i.e. Malaysia (2), Indonesia (1), Philippines (2), Singapore (1), Thailand (1) and Vietnam (1) and from APHCN-ASEANET (3).

The opening session was chaired by Dr. Lum Keng Yeang, Chairperson of APHCN-ASEANET who welcomed the NPPO representatives and gave a brief overview of the history BioNET-ASEANET, APHCN and ARDN and the role of APHCN in securing this JAIF funded project.

Ms. Faridah Aini Muhammad, Director of Plant Biosecurity Division, Department of Agriculture Malaysia on behalf of the host country, then proceeded to give her welcoming remarks. She acknowledged the strong commitment and support from all ASEAN member states in endorsing the proposal for funding consideration by JAIF.

In the 2nd session, the JAIF project steering committee was established and the chairprson appointed.

During the 3rd session, Dr. Soetikno gave an overview of the project activities including Component 1 (Training & Capacity Building) and Component 3 (Management & Coordination); Chan F.W presented on Component 2 (Networking & Institutionalisation).

Other matters that were discussed included list of proposed activities from countries for future projects and funding consideration, criteria for selection of participants during the upcoming workshops for the attachment programme.