Since February 2003 ITC is engaged in an Institutional Cooperation Program with the Department of Geology and Mines (DGM) of the Royal Government of Bhutan. Core of this program is capacity building and institutional strengthening to cope with slope instability problems in the development of the infrastructure of this small Himalayan country between India and China (Tibet). For more details on this program see ITC News 2002-4.

Dr. Niek Rengers, Ass. Prof. Engineering Geology and vice-rector of ITC from 1992 to 2000 and local ITC team leader in Thimphu, invited on 25th April the Bhutanese ITC alumni for an alumni meeting in the Yeedzin Guesthouse in the capital. A total of 38 Bhutanese have followed courses at ITC since the late 1980's of which 23 participated in the meeting.

Just over half of the alumni is employed by the Survey of Bhutan, other employer organizations are the Ministry of Agriculture (Department of Forestry Services as well as Policy and Planning Division), the Renewable Natural Resources Research Centre, the Urban Development and Housing Division of the Ministry of Communications, the Department of Geology and Mines, and the Thimphu City Corporation.

Mr. Sangay Gyaltsen, ITC MSc with specialization Engineering Geology, gave a presentation on the DGM-ITC Institutional Cooperation program. This was followed by a presentation by Niek Rengers on recent developments at ITC:

• a new name for ITC, what does this mean?
• the new setup of the educational programs,
• research spearheads, etc.

Furthermore the new Alumni Interaction System was presented (email : alumni@itc.nl).

After these presentations there was a lively get-together with a buffet dinner where many anecdotes about the study period spent at ITC were exchanged. Some expressed the desire to found an official ITC alumni association in the country. Time will prove what will be the result.

On the photograph: Bhutanese ITC alumni from the last two and a half decades with Dr. Niek Rengers (front row, extreme right), Mr. Dorji Wangda, the Director of the Department of Geology and Mines (second row extreme left), and Ms. Yangchen Doma, secretary Netherlands Consulate in Bhutan (seated next to Niek Rengers).