Minutes of the PRSCO Council Meeting
Held on Wednesday 27 July 2005
13th floor Meeting Room
Building 7, Nihon University College of Economics
Tokyo, Japan

President Jorge Serrano opened the meeting at 8.15 am.
a. Apologies received, roll-call and confirmation of Section representatives
Apologies received: J. Quigley, K. Donaghy, B. Brondjonegoro, B.P. Resosudarmo, R.
Florax, A. Bailley
Present:
Patricio Aroca (Chilean Association of Regional Studies CARS – under formation); PeterBatey (Long Range Planning Committee LRPC RSAI); Graham Clarke (ExecutiveDirector RSAI); Lay Gibson (WRSA, LRPC RSAI); Haynes Kingsley (representing
David Plane WRSA, LRPC RSAI); Yoshiro Higano (JSRSAI, Executive Secretary
PRSCO); Rahmah Ismail, (Malaysian Regional Science Association MRSA); Mohd
Yusof Kasim (MRSA); Tschangho John Kim (WRSA and PRSCO rep RSAI Council);
Yoshinobu Kumata (representing Keiichi Tanaka, JSRSAI); Jen-Jia Lin, (representing
Cheng-Min Feng – CRSA-T); Yuzuru Miyata (JSRSAI); Shin-kun Peng (representing
C.C. Mai – CRSA-T); Jacques Poot (ANZRSAI); Jorge Serrano (Amecider, PresidentPRSCO); Bob Stimson (President RSAI); Roger Stough (WRSA); Makoto Tawada(JSRSAI); Heinrich von Baer (CARS – under formation); Ishak Bin Yussof (MRSA)
Confirmation of Section representatives as at 27 July 2005
AMECIDER: J. Serrano (President), R. Wences
ANZRSA: J. Madden, J PootCARS: P. Aroca, H. von BaerCRSA: D. Edgington, R. Shearmur
CRSA-T: C.-M. Feng, C. Mai
IRSA: B. Brodjonegoro, B. Resosudarmo
JSRSAI: Y. Higano (Executive Secretary), Y. Miyata, K. Tanaka (Vice-President), M.
TawadaKRSA: J.H. Choi, S.O. Park
MRSA: M.Y. Kasim, I.B. Yussof
WRSA: L.J. Gibson, D. Plane (Immediate Past President), T.J. Kim, R. Stoughb. Minutes of the PRSCO Council Meeting in Seattle, USA, 13 November 2004
The minutes were approved as a correct record of the meeting, except for the omission ofan apology for absence having been received from Lay Gibson.
c. Report on the organization of the 19th Pacific Conference of the RSAI, Tokyo,July 25-28, 2005

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Yoshiro Higano reported on the conference. He noted that the chairperson of the Local
Organizing Committee, Professor Keiichi Tanaka of Nihon University, had become ill
before the conference. Professor Yoshibuno Kumata had agreed to step in at short notice
to take on this role. Conference registrations were around 150, which was less than
expected. Possible reasons included the timing of the conference being fairly close to theERSA congress and also being during a teaching week in the southern hemisphere.
d. Progress report on the organization of the 2006 PRSCO Summer Institute inKuala Lumpur
Mohd Yussof Kassim handed out a call for papers for the 9th PRSCO Summer Institute tobe held at the Mandarin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 19-21, 2006. The 8thPRSCO Summer (actually winter in the southern hemisphere) Institute was held in
Valdivia, Chile, September 23-24, 2004. The theme of the 2006 meeting in Kuala
Lumpur is “Regions on a Global Platform”. The registration fee for international
participants will be US $225, while the local fee is RM600. It was noted that a lower fee
should be introduced for students and also for overseas participants from developingcountries.
e. Progress report on the organization of the 2007 PRSCO Regular Meeting inBritish Columbia
Yoshiro Higano would ask the Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee, DavidEdgington, to report on conference preparations at the PRSCO Council meeting in Las
Vegas in November.
f. Affiliation of Indian Regional Science Association to the RSAI and PRSCOPeter Batey spoke on behalf of the Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) of RSAI.
One issue with respect to affiliation of the Indian Regional Science Association is thechoice of a supranational organization that would be the best for the Indian section.
Hence the broader issue is where Asian sections would fit in. The LRPC will put to RSAICouncil proposals that are aiming at restructuring the supranational layer of the RSAI
network in such a way that enhances the participation of new sections, particularly thosein developing parts of the world. Sections would have the option of seeking affiliation
with more than one supranational organization. There is a strong push for expanding
PRSCO to include non-Pacific parts of Asia, and it is therefore recommended to replace
the name of PRSCO with APRSCO (Asian and Pacific Regional Science Conference
Organization). Section representatives were urged to consider this in their sections andreport back at the PRSCO Council meeting at the NARSC conference in Las Vegas inNovember.
Peter Batey noted that it was likely that RSAI and it constituent networks would develop
in an evolutionary fashion during the next decade and any structures put in place would
have to be flexible and reviewed after five years.
It was particularly important to facilitate the inclusion of Indian, PRC and SouthAmerican regional scientists in the RSAI network. To do this, NARSC, ERSA andPRSCO would be invited to co-opt one or two additional RSAI Council members fromsuch parts of the world. The Indian section has already operated for many years and its
36th annual meeting would be held in Delhi on November 18 and 19. Decisions would2

need to be made in November 2005, so that the new structure would include India which
will host an RSAI institute in Bangalore in January 2006.
It was moved and carried that the Indian section would join PRSCO and that RSAICouncil would be advised to this effect. It was also agreed in principle to expand PRSCO
to become the Asian and Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization (APRSCO).
PRSCO councilors were invited to pass on their views in writing to the Executive
Secretary of the RSAI, Graham Clarke.
g. Report on the organization of the Chilean Section
Heinrich von Baer and Patricio Aroca reported on the 3rd national meeting on regional
studies to be held in Chile on 13-14 October 2005. At this meeting, the Chilean
Association of Regional Studies (CARS) would be formed. This Association would then
immediately seek affiliation with PRSCO, with confirmation of this status to take place atthe Las Vegas meeting in November. It was noted that there is a strong “practitioner”
interest in regional studies in Chile and the heterogeneity of skills and interests could be
the strength of regional science development in Latin America.
Bob Stimson recommended that some international participants would be invited to theChilean meetings. Such participants already include presenters from other Latin
American countries, but it could be broader than that.
h. Report on other activities of Pacific Rim regional science communities
Jorge Serrano reported on an initiative in Latin America to use a network of university
presidents/rectors as a means for building up a regional science network. Heinrich vonBaer noted that while it was unlikely that such presidents/rectors would be able toactively promote regional science, they could at least identify those individuals in theirorganizations that would be able to join the regional science network.
With respect to Columbia, it was noted that there was one Columbian participant at theTokyo meeting and there would be several delegates at the NARSC meeting in Las Vegas.
Yoshiro Higano reported that he visited PRC and investigated the possibilities for more
involvement of mainland China in PRSCO. Because organizations such as the Chinese
Regional Economics Association receive official endorsement and funding from theChinese government, it would be impossible for such organizations to join PRSCO
formally under the current international situation. However, individuals with an interestin regional science could informally group together for the purpose of acting as theequivalent of a PRSCO section in China.
i. Nomination of Friends of the PRSCO
Yoshiro Higano reported the names and countries of those regional scientists who act as
representatives for regional science in countries which do not yet have regional science
sections. They would be invited to attend PRSCO Council meetings. They are:Isabel Aponte Jaramillo (Colombia)
Muhammad Iqbal Zuberi (Bangladesh)
Md.Fakrul Islam (Bangladesh)3

j. PRSCO delegate for the RSAI Council, 2006-2008
It was proposed by Yoshiro Higano that this person would come from the Canadiansection. David Edgington, Richard Shearmur and Warren Gill were named as potential
candidates. The Council of the Canadian Section would be consulted and Lay Gibson &Yoshiro Higano would report back with a firm proposal at NARSC in Las Vegas.
k. International Symposium of the RSAI, Bangalore, India, January 6-8, 2006
Information about this was included in the PRSCO Tokyo conference satchel.
l. Report of the Pacific Editor, PiRS
Jacques Poot reported that the first issue to be published by the new publisher Blackwell
had been made available the previous week electronically. The printed version would beavailable the week following the conference. The second and third issues for 2005 hadalready been prepared as well, so that the delay due to the transition from Springer toBlackwell would be overcome very quickly. The third issue would be a special issue.
The board of editors now includes Professor Jouke van Dijk of Groningen University.
However, the system of regional editors has been abolished. All submitted papers should
be sent electronically to the PiRS headquarters which is the Free University Amsterdam(Angele Janse) until early September 2005, and Purdue University (Joy May) from thenon. Papers will be assigned to editors based on expertise and an even spread of theworkload. The current rate of paper submissions is about 80 manuscripts per year. Theeditors aim to increase this to 100.
The impact factor of the journal is quite close to that of other regional science journals
and it was noted that PiRS had the highest immediacy index among regional sciencejournals in 2004 (based on the number of articles published in 2004 and also cited in2004).
m. Any further business
The next Council meeting is likely to be held on Thursday November 10, 8-10 am at theRiviera Hotel in Las Vegas.
Jorge Serrano closed the meeting at 10.00 am.

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