“The 2022 International Exchange of Technical Experiences on Remediation for Soil and Groundwater Pollution Project” was a continuous effort for Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TWEPA)to carry out the international collaboration programs, including regional and bilateral, in the soil and groundwater environment protection. While impacted by the pandemics of COVID-19, the plan and execution of diverse meetings and workshop have been highly constrained. The project team has managed to complete the events in time either virtually or physically and the objectives have been achieved with success. The major accomplishments include: the Technical Workshop for the Taiwan and U.S.A. cooperation program was held between December 14 and December 15 in 2022. The workshop was arranged as the combination of on-line and physical fashions. There were 216 attendants in the physical one while there were 26 applicants and on-line viewers on the Webex platform. As on January 10, 2023, the cumulative viewers of the workshop on the YouTube channel has reached 338 and 173 for the day 1 and day 2 programs, respectively. The result indicated that the combination of physical and virtual event can offer a broader penetration of information to the market as well as to the professions. Thus, the impacts of the workshop to the international technical community can be broadened. The annual business meeting of the Working Group on Remediation for Soil and Groundwater Pollution of Asian and Pacific Region (ReSAG) was held on December 16, 2022, right after the close of the workshop. The main themes of the annual business meeting were election of chair of the ReSAG for 2023~2024 and future work plan for ReSAG. The outcome of the election had kept Taiwan as the chair country and Thailand as the vice chair country. Also, the member countries have agreed to maintain quarterly virtual meeting to share the information and promote soil and groundwater experiences among the member countries. The bilateral cooperation between Taiwan and South Korea has been carries out for more than a decade under the cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU). The Ministry of Environment of South Korea (MOE) has decided to cease the continuation of the MOU and transfer the collaboration to the ReSAG platform. TEPA has agreed and expressed the respect to the decision of MOE and initiated the diplomatic actions accordingly. On December 23, 2022, the 5th Steering Committee Meeting for the Cooperation of Taiwan and Vietnam was held. Due to the organization reform of the Vietnam Environmental Agency (VEA), the technical forum accompanied the steering committee was postponed. Based on the conclusion of the steering committee meeting, the technical forum will be resumed with the 6th steering committee meeting hosted by VEA. On December 20, 2022, the 2022 Soil and Groundwater Protection Technical Forum was held on-line. The forum was co-hosted by the Taiwan EPA and Thailand PCD and opened to government and private entities to join on-line.

Working Group on Remediation for Soil and Groundwater Pollution of Asian and Pacific Region, Agreement on Technical and Scientific Cooperation in Soil and Groundwater Protection between Taiwan and Vietnam, Memorandum of Understanding on Technical Cooperation in Soil and Groundwater Protection between Taiwan and Korea