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been engaged to report on technical training and flood control. Asa result of this research the Commission has been able to select key problems for concentrated attention. A Bureau of Flood Control has been set up under the segis of the Commission, problems of flood control (involving millions of casualties every year) being of grave concern to the region. The Bureau will collect and disseminate information, advise Governments,, rendering technical assistance to Governments when requested,, promote the training of technicians, and explore the need for an international laboratory to study problems of flood control. Partly as a result of the Commission's study of technical training facilities in the region, the ILO has agreed to establish an Asian Field Office on Technical Training. This office will furnish information, advise Governments on training schemes, plan the interchange of experts and students, organize training abroad, and in due course set up training courses and other facilities. The ILO has also set up a regional Tripartite Committee on Man-power (to include the subject of technical training) and is to call a conference of experts towards the end of 1949. All these activities will be carried out in collaboration with ECAFE. Following on their joint study of agricultural problems, the Commission and FAO are to call a conference of officials engaged in the task of agricultural reconstruction in the region, and FAO is to convene a meeting of countries supplying agricultural requisites. The Commission's Secretariat, in collaboration with FAO, is to make a study of the sociological and economic aspects of the production and use of chemical fertilizers. In the field of trade, the International Monetary Fund has agreed to report on balance of payments and trade movements and on the desirability of setting up a multilateral clearing system for the region. In an effort to stimulate trade with Japan, the Commission's Secretariat is disseminating information on import needs and export availabilities in Japan and in countries of the ECAFE area. The Secretariat is also compiling a handbook of trade-promotion services in the region, and in this and other ways is developing a commercial intelligence service. The Commission has set up a Working Party on Travel Facilities (to be succeeded by a representative subcommittee) to promote the freer movement of students, and tourists in the area. Industrial development has been generally regarded as the most important subject the Commission has had to consider and a number of key problems have been selected for intensive research by the Secretariat, including transport, coal resources, and iron and steel. In collaboration with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Secretariat is also preparing a study on regulations.