Malaysia

On November 29-30, 2011, Vietnam hosted a regional consultation meeting in Hanoi joined by counterpart officials from Korea, Malaysia and Thailand to share ideas on a draft technical guideline on contaminated soil monitoring. At the consultation meeting, experts shared lessons learned and recommendations based on implementation challenges and success in their respective countries. As for the next steps, Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will finalized the technical guidelines and explore opportunities to continue their twinning partnership with Korea.

Nepal faces an ongoing challenge in bringing hydropower projects on line. Power outages in Kathmandu can be as much as 18 hours a day.

Challenge

Through a twinning partnership with the Malaysia Department of Environment, the Nepal Ministry of Environment (MOE) expanded efforts to developed new tools to improve and streamline the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process by developing a training program and registration scheme for EIA consultants. At a consultation workshop on May 24, 2011 in Kathmandu, stakeholders from various sectors provided feedback on the consultant registration scheme and training program aimed at improving the quality of EIA reports and ensuring a more efficient review process.

As part of the AECEN twinning partnership between the Nepal Ministry of Environment and the Malaysia Department of Environment (DOE) on strengthening environmental impact assessment (EIA) capabilities for the hydropower sector, Nepal partners met with Malaysian counterparts in Kuala Lumpur on April 26-27, 2010 to finalize the work program and initiate activities.  During the meetings, Malaysia DOE and other stakeholders shared details on EIA implementation and experience on their EIA consultant registration scheme.  The work partnership program will include a comprehensive training in cooperation with the Environmental Institute of Malaysia to develop a curriculum, modules and guidelines for use in Nepal, and the creation of a roster of EIA consultants in Nepal.

The Nepal Ministry of Environment and Malaysia Department of Environment officially launched a twinning arrangement in Kathmandu on January 14, 2010 to strengthen Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practices for the hydropower sector in Nepal. At a workshop on Sharing EIA Best Practices for the Hydropower Sector, co-organized with the World Bank, Malaysian officials shared innovative approaches on EIA in the hydropower sector. USAID will support the partnership with World Bank under AECEN.