Pattaya, Thailand, 13-14 March 2025: the SEA-MaP Project Steering Committee (PSC) Workshop: Shaping Governance, Sustainability, and Collaboration was held in Pattaya, Thailand. The Workshop was part of the implementation of the Regional Platform for Innovation and Investments (“Platform”) developed under the SEA-MaP Regional Project, which aims to serve as a regional platform to support innovation and investments in plastics and plastic waste management.

The Workshop kicked off with welcoming remarks delivered by Dr. Pinsak Suraswadi, Director-General at the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Kingdom of Thailand; Chair of the ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME) and Co-Chair of the SEA-MaP Project Steering Committee (PSC). In his welcome remarks, Dr. Pinsak Suraswadi highlighted that the Workshop is a valuable opportunity to discuss the role of the PSC in shaping and defining the Platform’s operations strategy going forward, and that it is essential to ensure that the Platform is an effective and responsive mechanism that meets needs and brings about tangible change in the ASEAN region.

The Platform will feature four key components, which are namely: (i) Financing Marketplace; (ii) Technical Assistance (TA)/Accelerator Program; (iii) Events and Communication); and (iv) Community of Practice and Sustainability. At the Workshop, interactive sessions were held which discussed, among others, the Platform’s goal and design; PSC engagement in steering the platform development and sustainability; as well as potential country-level outreach towards advancing plastic circularity in the ASEAN region. 

The Workshop is organized by the SEA-MaP Regional project, facilitated by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) consortium, in close coordination with the Regional Implementation Support Unit (RISU) and the Project Management Unit (PMU) of SEA-MaP. The event was participated by representatives of the ASEAN Member States (AMS), the ASEAN Secretariat, the PMU and RISU, and the World Bank.

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