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The Foundation of SEAMEO

The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) was founded in 1965 as a chartered international organization for the promotion of regional cooperation in education, science, technology and culture.

Member Countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Associate Members: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Governance & Administration

SEAMEO Council (SEAMEC)

SEAMEO's highest policy making body is the SEAMEO Council (SEAMEC), which is composed of the Ministers/Secretaries of Education of the Member Countries.

SEAMEO Secretariat (SEAMES)

SEAMEO's administrative functions are performed by the Secretariat (SEAMES) located in Bangkok, Thailand.

SEAMEO

Regional Network & TROPMED Approval

SEAMEO's programmes and activities are carried out in 11 Regional Centres and the SEAMEO TROPMED Network. The responsibility for operational policies, programme quality and evaluation rests upon a Governing Board for the SEAMEO Regional Centres and the TROPMED Network, consisting of representatives from respective Member Countries.

The Manila Meeting 1966 SEAMEO TROPMED Project was officially approved by SEAMEC at its Second Meeting in Manila in November 1966, during which there was a general recognition among the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education that the nations of Southeast Asia had been hampered to a great degree in their social and economic development by indigenous tropical diseases contributing to a low standard of health.

Healthy economy needs healthy community
The Ministers decided that steps should be taken at the regional level to solve the health problems, through a regional cooperation. This was backed up by a report of a SEAMES Task Force Committee composed of tropical medicine and public health experts from the region as well as from the United States and the United Kingdom in September 1966.

Sprit of Gotong-Royong

Asian cooperation and Asian responsibility

Thus "Asian cooperation and Asian responsibility" became the guiding principle together with the spirit clearly expressed by His Excellency Sarino Magoenpranoto of Indonesia, i.e. the sprit of gotong-royong which means not only working together or cooperation, but also the feeling of needing each other and being needed by each other as one can experience in a harmonious family life.

Why a Network of National Centres?

The Tropical Medicine and Public Health Project is implemented through a cooperative effort of existing National Centres based on two key strategic reasons:

Cost Efficiency

It would be expensive to establish one single facility that would be able to address all the endemic diseases in the region.

Leveraging Expertise

Well-established institutions and programmes already exist in several countries throughout the region.

Excerpts from the Speeches of the founding fathers of SEAMEO:

"... though we may lack some talent and resources, we are not lacking in faith, in unity and in cooperation."

H.E. Mohamed Khir Johari

"To be educated is just as much a human right as it is a means for the state to carve out its national identity."

H.E. Toh Chin Chye

"…cooperation covers common good faith and common endeavors. Good faith without endeavor is futile, and endeavor without good faith leads to cross-purposes which are ineluctably self-defeating."

H.E. Carlos P. Romulo

"The road to Southeast Asian Community is still a long one but we are confident that SEAMES will prove itself an efficient setup; the first step towards better understanding and mutual confidence between our countries."

H.E. Nguyen Van Tho

Excerpt from the Speech of H.E. Tengku Abdul Rahman:

  • " …Because of the similarity in our social, economic, educational and cultural backgrounds, it is desirable that we collaborate and share in the experiences gained by the health and medical personnel of the countries in this region for mutual benefit."
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  • Hence, against this background, the Tropical Medicine and Public Health Project of SEAMEC or TROPMED was established with five Founding Participating Countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Vietnam, and Thailand.