Just before the 2014 ASEAN Summit which gathered regional and world’s leaders, Myanmar made an advance act of hosting the 32nd Conference of ASE- AN Federation Engineering organizations from 11th to 12th of Nov 2014 in Yangon. Foreign delegations, officials and presidents of respective ASEAN engineering organiza- tions arrived Yangon on 10th of Nov to par- ticipate this conference.
The opening ceremony of CAFEO 32 was officially celebrated on 11th of Nov, at 9 am in the Grand Ball Room of Sedona Hotel, Yangon. Professionals were present at this conference for the purpose of sharing their opinions on integrated solutions of ener- gy, transport and infrastructure between ASEAN countries. The Chairman of AFEO and the President of Myanmar Engineer- ing Society (MES) U Win Khaing gave the Welcome Speech and delivered congratu- latory message from Thura U Shwe Mann, speaker of Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and Pyithu Hluttaw, Republic of the Union of Myan- mar. The opening ceremony was attended by Myanmar’s senior officers such as the Union Minister U Kyaw Lwin; Ministry of Construction, the Union Minister U Kyaw Lwin; Ministry of Construction, the Union Deputy Minister Dr. Win Myint, Ministry of Construction and President of Myanmar Engineering Council and as well as Dato Ir Lee Yee Cheong, Chairman of the Governing Board of International Science and Technol- ogy and Innovation Centre ISTIC – UNES- CO made a speech.
The theme of CAFEO 32 was “Integrated Solutions of Energy, Transport and Infra- structure” emphasizing on infrastructure development, regional and international connectivity, engineering education, re- search and innovation, renewable energy source, rural electrification, technology development and urban transport. Work- shops, technical seminars and meetings of YEAFEO, WEAFEO and AER focusing on these topics and theme were carried on after the ceremony attended by local and foreign delegates, followed by country’s report.
U Win Maung, a civil engineer and Joint General Secretary of MES who is the re- sponsible person for organizing CAFEO 32, said, “Lately, MES has been given opportu- nities to take care of the tasks given by the government including the President. Our duties involved examining quality control and giving approval.” He then continued, “There are diverse studies in engineering field such as Civil, Mechanical, and Chemi- cal and so on. One of our aims is to provide
nation’s need by giving advices of different technology.” According to him, recently recognized Myanmar Engineering Council Law and policies will be delineated to glob- al engineers in coming 2015. U Win Maung continued, “Lately, the government has been giving opportunities and permissions to MES to join their nation’s development procedures. In my opinion, every Myan- mar engineer should be a member of MES so that they can participate in cooperation with MES and be a helping hand in country’s development process.” According to the in- formation comes from him, MES provided foreign delegates and attendants with Tele- nor SIMs for communication during their stay in Myanmar.
Apart from workshops and seminars, engi- neering exhibition was also a part of CAFEO 32. There were three international booths including Institution of Engineers, Singa- pore (IES), Institution of Engineers, Malay- sia (IEM) and United Business Media-UBM Asia. The responsible person of IES said, “Since CAFEO is an annual conference, we always know about it and always partic- ipate in the conference. We’re here to give information about engineering trainings and government conferences organized by IES. And we can also promote Singaporean Engineering to Myanmar. We’re nicely wel- comed and we could see that it’s well orga- nized.” Orange Electric, Schneider Electric, Panasonic Home Elevator and UBM Asia also participated in this exhibition together with some other local companies of Motta- ma Trading Co., Ltd, Min Dama Co., Ltd and Han Sein Thant Engineering.
The Yangon Declaration which was read out at the end of this conference carries the ob- jective of the CAFEO 32 of creating aware-
ness and understanding on the importance of finding solutions for energy, transport and infrastructure issues and to enhance engineering education in ASEAN member countries. It was also highlighted that the conference had made a milestone of gather- ing 0ver 20 million engineers from Asia and the Pacific region.
U Win Khaing continued that, “The theme of CAFEO 32 was a useful topic for Myan- mar. Some of the delegates said that their impression on Myanmar is beyond the ex- pectation and they’re interested in work- ing further with the exhibited companies in their respective countries with the sup- port of MES. This regional level conference CAFEO 32 has brought good results and has been a successful event.”
The 32nd CAFEO was successfully closed on 12th November after this 2-day confer- ence, celebrating the ceremony with enter- tainment programs and awarding section in which Myanmar won five awards in Project Category and an award in individual Cate- gory.
Technical visits were also arranged on 13th Nov for delegates to visit Nyaung Done Bridge and Bayint Naung Bridge, Mini Hydro Power Improvement Project and Thaukyegat 120 MW Hydro Power Station, Bago Division.
CAFEO is an annual conference held by ASEAN Federation of Engineering organi- zations since 1982. The host nation is decid- ed in a rotating alphabetical order. AFEO originated back to the convention held by the cooperation between IEM and IES, to which they invited other ASEAN members. Their mission is to spearhead and to facili- tate the mobility of engineers within ASEAN Free Trade Area.
CAFEO 32 hosted in Yangon, Myanmar was mainly organized by Myanmar Engineering Society which is a member of AFEO. MES is officially formed on 23th Dec 1995. It has over 40,000 members of engineers and 103 corporate member companies on 31st May 2014. Its objective is to serve its Mother land in the infrastructures needed for develop- ment, economy and urbanization. CAFEO 33 will be held in Penang, Malaysia in com- ing 2015.
