In 2002, when the 7th NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM) decided that NOWPAP RCU offices will be co-hosted by Toyama (Japan) and Busan (Korea), member states agreed that every four years Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator would be rotated between these two offices.
According to the 12th NOWPAP IGM decision, the first rotation was scheduled for December 2008 - January 2009. On 15 December 2008, NOWPAP Coordinator, Alexander Tkalin, is expected to arrive to Busan RCU office. After hand-over formalities, NOWPAP Deputy Coordinator, Xiaodong Zhong, is expected to arrive to Toyama RCU office. As their e-mail addresses will remain the same (alexander.tkalin@nowpap.org and xiaodong.zhong@nowpap.org), daily communication will be established almost immediately. After settling down some technical issues (bank accounts, apartments, etc.), full-scale RCU operations are expected to be resumed after New Year holidays.
Implementation of NOWPAP contributes to the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) in the Northwest Pacific region.