REAAA has resumed its associated event physically with the 118th REAAA Council Meeting and together with 22nd REAAA YEP (Young Engineers & Professionals) Meeting. This is the first REAAA physical meeting after 2 and half years due to Covid19 pandemic. The last physical meeting of REAAA was at Abu Dhabi in 2019, during World Road Congress.
The 22nd REAAA YEP Meeting was held in Christchurch, New Zealand hosted by REAAA New Zealand Chapter. To YEP members, this is the first time YEP ever hold a meeting in New Zealand since its inception back to 2012. Traveling to New Zealand was a great experience to most of the REAAA delegates since its geographically located at the end of Australasia. It was an exciting journey to the country that is well known for breathtaking nature and blockbuster movie set such as Lord of The Ring and The Hobbits.
Since the pandemic started all over the world in 2020, REAAA meeting was carried out via ZOOM. Therefore, during physical meeting in Christchurch, ZOOM also was provided to allow members to join the meeting virtually. However, the time different was a bit a challenge. 22nd REAAA YEP Meeting was set to start at 9.30 am local time. However, there are significantly time different with other member countries. 9.30am local time is equivalent to 7.30am in Melbourne, 6.30am in Tokyo and Seoul. It is 4.30am in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taipei and 4.00am in the morning at Jakarta. The time different making it too early for attending a meeting. However, we have the audience from those country and it is a remarkable commitment towards the association.
There were 10 YEP members attending the 22nd edition. Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Singapore representatives were present in physical. While Indonesia, Australia and Taiwan were using ZOOM. There was also President of REAAA attending the meeting as observer together with other REAAA Councils from New Zealand, Japan and Indonesia.
REAAA YEP Meeting continue to have its typical agenda agreed by all members. At the beginning of the meeting, the attendees had 1 minute of silence to commemorate the late Dr Hermanto Dardak, past president of REAAA who passed away on 20th August 2022. Mike Harrison from REAAA New Zealand Chapter as the host then are welcoming YEP to New Zealand. He stressed that YEP is important to continue the development agenda as we grow and develop, share knowledge and learn from our mistake to move forward together.
The agenda of the meeting is followed by updates from each country. We had the opportunity to share our current activities with others and take any ideas that can be implemented back home. The president was pleased with the agenda and suggested few improvements for the future meetings. The meeting also had discussed on YEP Technical Working Group C4WC4. The main objectives of the working group are to encourage members to network with all REAAA countries besides providing YEP with an opportunity to present at international events in the region. The discussion was fruitful with agreed actions to be carried out by all members. The were 2 technical presentations was planned for the meeting. Andi Reza Reyhansyah from Directorate General of Highways, Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Indonesia presented about “Nusantara : The New Capital of Indonesia” . Dr Yusof Adinegoro also from Indonesia had presented “Bridge Design Concept of Srandakan 3: Green, Sustainable and Resilience”.
The ended at 12.00pm with group photos of attendees and also via ZOOM. It was such a lovely meeting but fulfilling its objectives as been agreed upon.
Prepared by :
Ir Hamzah bin Hashim Chairman of REAAA YEP
