APLMF President's Newsletter - December 2016

Dear APMF Members and colleagues

On behalf of the Secretariat, I would like to wish you all greetings for the holiday season and best wishes for 2017.
As 2016 draws to a close, I would like to reflect on New Zealand’s first year of responsibility for the APLMF Secretariat and Presidency.

Top of mind is the recent 23rd Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum and Working Group Meetings held in Tokyo, Japan 23-25 November.

23rd Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum and Working Group Meetings

This year’s meetings hosted by National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) were an outstanding success. We greatly appreciated our gracious hosts, whose preparation and thought into every detail made this Forum a memorable one. We were presented with beautiful bags and origami crane which is a bird of peace.  The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) actively supports people with intellectual disabilities and pervasive developmental disorders and has formed a team with the important goal of promoting. This team made the bags we all received out of colourful newspapers which I think makes them all the more special. We were also presented with a gift of a traditional Tenugui, which is a piece of dyed cloth, which has many uses.

The meetings were held in the AIST building on Tokyo’s Waterfront, set in a tree-lined avenue, affording stunning 360 degree views of Tokyo Harbour, the city scape and a peek at Mt Fuji, which were enjoyed by all during the refreshment breaks throughout the meetings. Tokyo put on a range of weather conditions from warm autumn sunshine to snow (a first in November for 54 years) and a 7.4 earthquake just to keep us on our toes.  Having just suffered a spate of strong quakes in NZ we were impressed by Japan’s infrastructure which didn’t miss a beat.

While we had a very full programme of presentations and discussions, it is always the opportunity to meet or reconnect with our colleagues from legal metrology organisations throughout the Asia-Pacific Region that provide such valuable networks. It was very pleasing to have 16 of our 19 Full Member Economies attend, along with our guests from APMP, BIML and PTB, corresponding members from Russia and observers from India.

NMIJ and METI hosted a welcome dinner at the Observatory on the 21st floor of the Telecom Centre Building, just a short walk from the AIST offices. Again we enjoyed magnificent views and Chieko, Yuka and Noriko wore traditional Japanese kimono which was a treat for us all.

The APLMF farewell dinner was held at Shoutoen-Sakura a 45 minute bus ride. The venue overlooked the grounds of an ancient monastery, over 700 years old. We were able to view the gardens which were beautifully lit up. The gardens are only opened to the public once a year in September, so a very special place.  We were treated to traditional Japanese food and were entertained by two Japanese harpists.

The Technical Tour of Tatsuno Corporation in Yokohama was well attended and was another highlight of the meeting.  We thank the staff of Tatsuno Corporation who were so generous with their time and provided an interesting and informative tour of their facility. Some members also got to drive the Hydrogen powered car.

Presentations and reports from the meeting are currently available on the meeting webpage. This webpage also has copies of draft documents discussed at the meeting including the draft APLMF Strategic plan and initial discussion papers on a potential new fee structure and new working group guidelines. The Economy and Working Group Reports and the agreed APLMF Secretariat 2017 Work Programme and APLMF 23rd Meeting Resolutions are also on this meeting webpage.

If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, or haven’t yet had a chance to read the wealth of interesting information on the meeting webpage, we would encourage you to do so over the coming weeks.  A video presentation, which will walk you through the highlights of the meeting will be available on our website at the end of January. This will be followed by the draft meeting minutes which we are aiming to get to you in February.
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A warm thanks to Yoshi and his team as well as the Secretariat team on the ground in Japan and those supporting us from home in NZ.

2016 Secretariat Activities

Since formally taking over the responsibility for APLMF at the meeting in Hawaii in 2015, we have focussed our resources on setting up a Secretariat administrative base that is easily transferred to future economies and we have worked closely with MEDEA to fine tune our support for their training courses to ensure enduring benefits to the economies who attend. To read more about what we have been doing over the last 12 months go to our 2016 Secretariat Activity Report.

Training for 2017

With MEDEA’s support we bring you a full programme of Training for 2017; details will be added to the website as they come to hand:

Month:      May
Subject:    Joint APMP/APLMF Workshop Benefits of Metrology
Location:   Malaysia

Month:      July
Subject:    Verification of Bulk Flow Meters for Petrol and Diesel
Location:   Thailand

Month:      September
Subject:    Verification of Weighbridges
Location:   China

Month:      TBC
Subject:    Verification and Pattern Approval of Water Meters
Location:   Malaysia

Month:      TBC
Subject:    Verification of Rice Moisture Measure Meters
Location:   TBC

Month:      TBC
Subject:    Online training based on survey results
Location:   Secretariat

Invoices for APLMF Membership Fees

For 2017 will be sent to the primary contact for each member economy in the coming days, before the end of 2016.

Consultation Papers

Following on from the 23rd APLMF, as detailed in the meeting resolutions, the Secretariat will be developing and sending to APLMF members a number of discussion documents for your consideration and comment. These documents will be staggered in timing and give members a 3 month time frame for response to facilitate your comment and input. You will be sent further information once it is available.

Future Newsletters

We would very much like to include articles of interest from our members in our newsletters so we are inviting members to submit short articles that we can include in our newsletters or post to our website.  Please send any ideas or articles to the APLMF Secretariat.

24th Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum and Working Group Meetings

Exciting news!  We have just been advised by our hosts in Cambodia, that our meeting in 2017 will be held in the beautiful and historic city of Siem Reap.  We will keep you updated as details and dates are firmed up early in the New Year.