Minutes of the PRSCO Council Meeting
Held on Friday 17 November 2006
Fairmont Royal York HotelToronto, CanadaPresident Y. Kumata opened the meeting at 8:00 am.
a) Apologies received and roll-call
Apologies received:
A. Bailley (Past President RSAI, Switzerland)
Y. Miyata (JSRSAI, Japan)
D. Plane (WRSA, USA)R. Shearmur (CRSA, Canada)
M. Tawada (JSRSAI, Japan)
I.B. Yussof (MRSA, Malaysia)
Present:
Patricio Aroca (SOCHER, Chile)
Graham Clarke (Executive Director RSAI, United Kingdom)David Edgington (CRSA/ACSR, Vice-President PRSCO, Canada)
Yoshiro Higano (JSRSAI, Executive Secretary PRSCO, Japan)
Md. Fakrul Islam (BRSA, Bangladesh)
T. John Kim (WRSA, USA)
Yoshinobu Kumata (JSRSAI, President PRSCO, Japan)
Philip McCann (RSAI, New Zealand)Peter Nijkamp (LRPC, Past President RSAI)
Jacques Poot (ANZRSAI, New Zealand)
Hiroyuki Shibusawa (JSRSAI representing Y. Miyata, Japan)
Shin Kung Peng (CRSA-T, Taiwan)
John Quigley (WRSA, representing T. John Kim, USA)
Bob Stimson (ANZRSAI representing John Madden, RSAI President, Australia)b) Minutes of the PRSCO Council Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 18th July2006
The minutes were approved as a correct record of the meeting.
c) Report on the 9th PRSCO Summer Institute in Kuala Lumpur, 18-20 July 2006
Y. Higano reported that this had been a very successful meeting and of a scale that was
rather larger than earlier Summer Institutes. More than 100 papers were presented by 117
participants (of whom 50 from Malaysia and 67 from abroad). The conference had a highprofile in Malaysia and the guest of honor at the conference dinner was the Minister ofEducation YB Dato’ Mustapa Mohamed.

1d) Affiliation of MRSA to PRSCO and RSAIY. Higano reported that he had received a letter dated 18th October 2006 from I. Yussof,
Executive Secretary for MRSA, which stated that the Malaysian Regional Science
Association (MRSA) had been officially established on 18th July 2006 during the 9thPRSCO Summer Institute meeting in Kuala Lumpur. In the letter, MRSA requested
formal affiliation with PRSCO and RSAI. Members of the PRSCO Council strongly
supported this affiliation.
e) Progress report on the organization of the 20th PRSCO regular conference, inBritish Columbia, 6-9 May 2007 (CRSA)
D. Edgington (University of British Columbia, PRSCO Vice-President), who chairs theorganizing committee of the 20th PRSCO conference, gave a presentation about theconference. He also distributed a conference postcard and a conference flyer. Theconference would be held at the Westin Bayshore Hotel. The conference website iswww.prsco2007.confmanager.com, while the email address of the conference secretariat
is registration@housing.ubc.ca. The main theme of the conference is “Creative city
regions: examining their role in the Pacific Rim”. Conference registration wouldcommence in the afternoon of Sunday 6 May, followed by an opening reception. Theclosing ceremony and reception would be late afternoon on Wednesday 9 May. On
Thursday 10 May there would be post-conference excursions. J. Poot reminded theorganizers to send out email invitations to all members of all PRSCO sections. The
registration fee for international RSAI members would be CAD 550 before 1 March 2007
and CAD 650 thereafter. As non-RSAI members would be required to be an additional
CAD 100, it was pointed out that such participants would be better off joining RSAI for
EUR 10. The PRSCO Council meeting would be held 8.30 – 10.30 pm on Monday 7 May.
An RSAI Council meeting would be scheduled some time on Wednesday 9 May.
f) Report on activities of Pacific Rim regional science communities(1) Chile
P. Aroca reported that in October 2006 a successful two-day meeting was held by theChilean regional science association SOCHER. About 100 papers were presented. Thevenue was the Catholic University of the North in Antofagasta. Besides academics, there
was also good participation of government officials. R. Stimson, G. Hewings and K.
Haynes represented the international RSAI community.
(2) China
Y. Higano reported that good progress is being made with developing a section that canbe associated with RSAI. The contact with PRSCO is extensive: Y. Higano visited China
six times during 2006. However, it is now unlikely that a section will be formallyestablished by the time of the Vancouver PRSCO meeting. An international regional
science meeting is being planned in China for late 2007, possibly December. This follows
the successful workshop held at East China Normal University in Shanghai, 3-5 April
2006. It is hoped that many key people from RSAI sections would participate tocontribute to this development stage. The key link in China is with the Chinese Academy2

of Sciences. It was noted that the development of a Chinese section would take time,
given the size and complexity of the country, the issue of the relationship with theChinese Regional Science Association – Taiwan (CRSA-T), and the presence of several
regional science groups on the mainland.
(3) Colombia
P. Aroca reported on regional science meetings that took place in Colombia. There are atleast two groups that are active in the regions, in Cartagena and Medelin respectively.
Earlier, J. Serrano and Y. Higano attended a workshop of Columbian regional scientists
in Cali. It was likely that a RSAI-affiliated section would be established. An international
RSAI-sponsored workshop, along the lines of the one held in India in January 2006,
would be considered.
(4) Bangladesh
Md F. Islam noted that Bangladesh had been in the news recently with Dr Muhammad
Yunus and Grameen Bank having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, for theirdevelopment of micro-credit. Md F. Islam reported that the First Annual Conference ofthe Bangladesh Regional Science Association (BRSA) would be held 16-17 March 2007at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Theconference website is http://teacher.buet.ac.bd/mzaman/brsa/ It is hoped that severaleminent scholars in regional science from around the world would attend. G. Hewings
and Y. Higano had already confirmed their participation. The deadline for abstracts andproposals is 31 January 2007. It was also noted that the 10th PRSCO Summer Institutewas planned to be held in Bangladesh in June or July 2008.
(5) Philippines
Y. Higano is trying to establish contact with regional science scholars in this country. B.
Resosudarmo of IRSA had informed him of at least two groups to contact. R. Stimson
commended Y. Higano on the efforts PRSCO is making to expand its activities indeveloping countries and noted that these activities may well be eligible for financial
support from the Asian Development Bank.
g) The venue and the host sections/associations of the 2008 PRSCO Summer
Institute and the 2009 PRSCO Regular Meeting
It was agreed that the 2008 Summer Institute would be held in June/July in Bangladesh. Itwas also agreed that the first choice for the 2009 regular PRSCO conference would beChina. However, R. Stimson noted that if this turned out to be infeasible, the Australianand New Zealand section of RSAI would be willing to step in and host the 2009conference. The last PRSCO conference hosted by ANZRSAI was held in Wellington,
New Zealand, in December 1997. A decision would be made at the PRSCO conference
in Vancouver in May 2007.
h) Report of the Pacific Editor, PiRSThe Pacific Editor of Papers in Regional Science, J. Poot, reported that a new editorial
team had been appointed by RSAI, commencing January 2007. The new Editor-in-Chiefis Professor Jouke van Dijk, who is presently the European editor and will continue to3

have that role as well. The new North-American editor is Professor James LeSage. The
new Pacific editor is Professor Philip McCann. The new book review editor is Dr Charlie
Karlsson. J. Poot noted that the long-term trend has been for an increasing number andshare of Asia-Pacific sourced papers in the journal, as well as an increase in referees fromthis region. These are positive developments. A major change is planned with respect topaper submissions: from 2007 papers will be handled electronically through theManuscript Central software that will be accessed from the journal’s webpage. J. Pootalso noted that RSAI Council is currently investigating the feasibility of a ‘practitioners’oriented journal that would complement the academically-oriented PiRS.
i) Any further business
The next meeting of the PRSCO Council will be held 8.30-10.30 pm on Monday 7 May
at the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver, Canada. It is likely that a PRSCO meeting
will also be held during the ERSA conference in Paris, August 29 – September 2, 2007.
President Y. Kumata closed the meeting at 10.00 am.

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