Hong Kong Observatory and Korea Meteorological Administration sign MOU to mark closer ties

30 May 2012

The Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), Mr Shun Chi-ming, and the Administrator of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), Mr Cho Seok Joon, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on co-operation between the two organisations in Seoul, Republic of Korea, today (30 May). This is the first MOU that the Observatory establishes with an overseas meteorological service in the Asia Pacific region.

The Observatory has been collaborating with KMA over the years in various disciplines, including aviation weather services and public weather service support for developing countries. In recent years, the two organisations jointly co-ordinate a pilot project of the World Meteorological Organisation to support meteorological services to develop numerical weather prediction (NWP) capability. The signing of the MOU today signifies further strengthening of the collaboration between the two services.

"I believe that with our advanced meteorological technologies, the KMA and HKO can cooperate further and create a synergy effect in many fields including NWP, climate change, satellite data analysis, aviation meteorology and so on," said Mr Cho.

Mr Shun said: "Today's signing of the MOU marks a new chapter in the history of the Observatory, which will be celebrating its 130 year anniversary next year. I sincerely hope that together we will be able to foster further development of weather services to reduce the impact of severe weather and climate change to the society in the years to come."

Both sides look forward to contributing to the regional and global development of weather services under the scope of cooperation of the MOU.

The full text of the Director's speech at the signing ceremony of the MOU:
www.weather.gov.hk/dhkovoice/speech20120531.pdf

The Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Shun Chi-ming (left), is pictured with the Administrator of Korea Meteorological Administration, Mr Cho Seok Joon (right), after the signing of the MOU