As part of the promotion of INBO Associated Program in South East Asia, a representative of INBO Permanent Technical Secretariat (Denis Fourmeau) attended Hanoi water conference in October 2001.

This conference was divided into three parts:

• A national water workshop on October 22^nd et 23^rd, with presentations by Vietnamese officials (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development)
• the dialogue on water resources in South East Asia on October 24^th et 25th. This meeting gathered representatives of 10 ASEAN countries, GWP, 3^rd World Water Forum, donors and various international institutions (Mekong River Commission, International Water Management Institute…). It allowed to each ASEAN country to present the state of the art in terms of IWRM, to learn about the implementation of country water partnership en Malaysia and Sri Lanka, to assess actions taken since The Hague, and debate about the different dialogues (1/ Water, food and environment, 2/ Water and governance 3/ Water and climate), launched under the aegis of GWP for 3^rd World Water Forum, as well as the themes that Asian Development Bank wishes to include into the Forum (Water and megacities, Water and poverty, Shared waters)
• the 9^th SEATAC meeting on October 26^th, gathered to prepare 2002-2004 work plan.

INBO representative contributed to plenary discussions and working groups held during these meetings. A presentation of INBO, the Associated Program and the objectives of its "inception phase" supported by GWP was done during the SEATAC meeting.

Therefore, and as wished by GWP, our presence allowed to sensitize South East Asia executives to the interest of the Associated Program. This sensitization was clearly necessary, considering that, as of today, and if we except the case of Indonesia, no ASEAN country has implemented really operational RBOs. However, the concept itself of RBOs is progressively gaining ground, notably in Vietnam (where institutional and juridical framework allowing for implementation of RBOs do already exist), in Thailand (who created 10 basin committees, hoping to reach 25 by 2005) and in Malaysia under the dynamic impulsion of Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID), himself at the origin of Malaysia Water Partnership.

Even though for other countries like Myanmar or Cambodia, the idea of IWRM remains very new and does not belong to present governmental priorities, it can not be denied that South East Asia offers great opportunities of development for INBO Associated Program.