ISA HK/China --- CUGE & their Arbor training programs

Dear Anybody,

The Station Manager has just returned from a very successful trip to Singapore & a detailed report will be presented after the current preparation for the arrival of our ISA President-elect tomorrow & the CA exam next week. At the first-ever Asian Regional Arboricultural Seminar, the Station Manager has re-connected HK back on track with the rest of the world in our Greenery & has been interviewed by major newspapers & Channel Asia TV of Singapore to promote HK. Our little dot of HK is once again reaching east, south & west, rather than just biasedly looking up north after 1997. The Station Manager strongly believes HK will rise again & shine again, if we do not depart from the international community.

Among the many chores that the Station Manager has to handle upon returning, there is something of a more pressing nature to issue this Station Mail on CUGE training owing to the time frame of some of the training.

The Center for Urban Greenery & Ecology (CUGE, www.cuge.com.sg ) is the first-ever training facility set up for arboriculture, horticulture & landscaping in Asia. CUGE officially inaugurated on April 12, 2007 & is wholly owned & operated by the National Parks Board (Nparks) of the Singapore Govt. CUGE's goal is to upbring the standard of Urban Greenery & to train the landscape practitioners to attain professional recognition with quality & respect. The Singapore Govt will gradually require all their landscape practitioners to attend certified training to be provided by CUGE or other qualified entities in order to maintain their Greenery System at the international level. Singapore has the desire to evolve their 'Garden City' to become the 'City in a Garden'.

Besides offering certified training to their local practitioners, CUGE can also consider to accept overseas candidates from the surrounding region to attend their various training. CUGE has the benefit of being close to HK, & with a similar background & culture to our own. Singapore's climate is similar to our summer & a lot of plants & landscape practices resemble ours. Our Station has therefore grabbed the opportunity to request CUGE to consider training the HK candidates, since the last batch we sent in Dec 2006 have achieved impressive results. We also request CUGE to place our candidates into classes with the local candidates so that besides vibrancy, a kind of unspoken competition will be generated between our candidates & the others to see who would be taking the lead. It is no secret that Singapore & HK compete in many areas & the ultimate goal is that we can learn from each other in a healthy & competitive environment which will benefit both sides.

Some information about CUGE & their most recent training programs are attached for the information of the interested. Please also note Nparks is an accredited training provider for ISA Arboriculture as per attached.

If any of our Station Members or the public would like to join or enquire about CUGE courses, please kindly contact CUGE directly or through this Station informally.

Please note our Station has no commercial interest in any way with CUGE & our announcement for overseas training providers is entirely factual & unbiased.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager