History

Peter Gourlay provided training to the original members of the US-AEP Technology Rep offices from Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore in Washington in 1992

The establishment of the MD-AEP is based on the successful US-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP) model, a $100 million 1992 presidential initiative which was formed to address Asia’s environmental challenges by bridging U.S. technology and lessons learned to various parts of Asia.  Through a partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development and over 25 U.S. government agencies and a multitude of trade organizations,
US-AEP made some great progress in addressing some of Asia’s environmental problems while also helping the U.S. environmental industry win over $1 billion in business. 

While the original commercial aspect of the US-AEP officially ended back in 2004, the launching of the Maryland-Asia Environmental Partnership in January 2008 helps to fulfill the original vision for US-AEP's sustainability.  When US-AEP was launched in 1992, US-AEP Director General Lew Reade had envisioned that the seed investments in the 1990s would provide a platform for the private sector to assume leadership of some aspects of US-AEP's programs.  That realization is now here and the Maryland-Asia Environmental Partnership is the first step in this process.

Peter Gourlay seen here with US-AEP Director General Lew Reade in 1993

From its inception in 1992, Peter Gourlay played a key role in establishing US-AEP's business success in Asia.  On behalf of the US-AEP Secretariat, he was responsible for overseeing the relationship between the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of Commerce to establish nine US-AEP offices in Asia, hire technology representatives and direct their strategic approaches to help U.S. companies develop partnerships in Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and India. 

During Gourlay's 1992-1997 management of the program, U.S. companies won $730 million in grants, contracts and license arrangements .  Gourlay designed and oversaw grants programs for the National Association of State Development Agencies (NASDA) resulting in over $200 million for environmental projects with U.S. states.  He also arranged for a memorandum of understanding with the American Consulting Engineers Council (ACEC) to mobilize U.S. engineers to pursue environmental work in Asia and developed US-AEP's environmental technology trade leads system and the environmental finance referral system through the Bankers Association for Foreign Trade (BAFT).

Maryland's Involvement with US-AEP
US-AEP saw great value in mobilizing U.S. states to bring their collective resources to address similar environmental problems in Asia.  While US-AEP developed a grants program with NASDA to mobilize business trade missions to Asia, it also provided a grant to the Council of State Governments (CSG) to mobilize the collective wealth of public-private partnerships between U.S. states and their Asian country partners.  In 2002, US-AEP’s CSG initiative  helped to catalyze Maryland’s environment expertise with a grant through the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science to develop partnerships between agencies and organizations in three watersheds – Thachin River in Thailand, Laguna Bay in the Philippines and the Chesapeake Bay in the U.S.

In 2004 Maryland also received a grant to work on air quality issues in Thailand as part of the Chiang Mai Air Quality Initiative, a project led by the Maryland Department of the Environment with the support of EPA, the Pollution Control Department and the City of Chiang Mai have taken over the work of implementing the city's clean air master plan.