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EMERGING NATIONS
from the Asia-Pacific region. The inaugural Jaeger Lecture was
delivered as the opening address at the Congress, named in
tribute to the late Professor Hans E. Jaeger, one of the Founder
Vice-Presidents of the IIW, IIW President 1951-1954 and a
fervent believer in international cooperation. Bowler, twice
President of the Australian Welding Institute (AWI) and a
member of IIW’s Executive Council, was prominent in
the organisation of this Congress and in the formation
of an Asia-Pacific regional group at a special meeting
in Darwin, Australia, in November 1992. Without a
champion, activity in the Asia-Pacific region did not
progress much further than this until Mr Ang Chee Pheng
(Singapore) met with Australian representatives at a welding exhibition in Melbourne and
announced that a meeting would be held in Singapore on 7 November 1997 to investigate
the possibility of coordinating welding associations in the Asian region.
Regional congresses, clearly, throughdialogue anddiscussion, provided
the fertile ground required for the formation of regional networks. With a
strong interest being expressed by developing countries in South America
in becoming members of IIW (with Uruguay, Chile and Mexico (Associate
Member) taking up membership alongside existing members, Brazil and
Argentina), it was only natural that a second regional IIW International
Congress be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, courtesy of the Brazilian
Association of Welding in April 1992. Cenni, then Vice-President on IIW’s
Executive Council, in expressing a welcome to everyone attending the event
said ‘one of the most important activities of IIW is developing friendship
among its members’.
9
The Congress proved to be another successful venture
and heralded the election in 1993 of Mr Raül Timerman from Argentina as
the first person from Latin America to become President of IIW.
The designated third IIW International Congress was subsequently held in New
Zealand in 1996 in keeping with the four-year cycle planned for such regional events.
Though successful from a technical and social viewpoint it failed to meet attendance and
financial expectations.
10
In a post-mortem on the reasons for this, one of the causes of lack
of attendance was attributed to poor sponsorship; the other reason because registration
fees appeared to be too high. Notwithstanding this, a strongly attended meeting of the
WG-RA, including representatives from the AWS, gave further expectations for regional
collaboration in the Asia-Pacific region as well as igniting interest in holding international
congresses from developing countries around the world.
Ang Chee Pheng