17 February 1996
By Ad van Schaik
During a seminar on Educational Opportunities in the Netherlands for Overseas
Students representatives of the leading Dutch centres of international education like the
International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), International Institute
for Infrastructural, Hydraulic, and Environmental Engineering (IHE), the Institute of Social
Studies (ISS) and the International Agricultural Centre (IAC) informed the audience of the
latest developments at their institutes. As it is essential in the technical field for knowledge
to be updated constantly, refresher courses are being arranged in Asia on a regular
basis.
That evening the guests were offered a dinner party in the beautiful garden of the former
Dutch orphanage, nowadays the Dutch Period Museum where the Dutch Alumni Association
has its secretariat.
On the following day, the seminar participants visited Galle, 110 kilometres south of
Colombo, where the NAAL is closely involved in a number of projects being carried out in
the context of the twinning programme between Galle and the Dutch city of Velsen.
The Sri Lanka Daily News of February 17 published messages of congratulation from the
president of Sri Lanka, Mrs Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, the ambassador of the
Netherlands Mr B. Körner, the president of NAAL, the Commissioner of Labour Mr
R.P. Wimalasena, and the co-founder of NAAL and Director of the Netherlands-Sri Lanka
Foundation, Mr E. Jongens.