NOWPAP was invited to attend the Second General Assembly of the 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee and the Forum on Smart Ocean organized by the Committee in collaboration with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Fuzhou Municipal People's Government of China on 17-18 May 2022.
The Second General Assembly adopted the revised Charter of the 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee, established the Council of the Committee, and announced Council Members, new Committee Members, and new Advisers. Ning Liu, Programme Officer of NOWPAP, was appointed as Adviser and delivered a speech on behalf of new advisers. He highlighted the multi-faceted nature of maritime issues requests a holistic, integrated, and comprehensive approach to address them. He also introduced that a NOWPAP Regional Action Plan on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Conservation and the revised NOWPAP Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter are in the process of adoption and looked forward to exploring possibilities of cooperation in this regard.
In the Forum on Smart Ocean, Genki Terauchi, Senior Researcher, Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Centre of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan, introduced an assessment of eutrophication in the Northwest Pacific region with the NOWPAP eutrophication Assessment Tool (NEAT). In the Forum, 
experts shared views on promoting marine development through science and technology.
The events were attended by the members and advisers of the Committee, representatives of international organizations, Fuzhou’s international friendship cities, etc.
The 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee was established by the United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and the Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government in 2017. It is a non-profit international organization that aims to promote maritime cooperation among coastal cities and local governments in Asia and the Pacific.
