A joint session of the Technical Committee (TC) and the Governing Council (GC) of CSAM was held on 10 December 2015 in Manila, the Philippines. The 11th Sessions of both the Technical Committee and the Governing Council were held in collaboration with the Agricultural and Fishery Mechanization Committee of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries, and the College of Engineering & Agro-industrial Technology of the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB). Technical experts from 16 countries, i.e. Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, ROK, Russia Federation, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, and all GC members joined discussions on technical issues on which CSAM sought advice, particularly the future steps of the regional database of agricultural mechanization. They emphasized the crucial role of the TC in providing technical support to the work of CSAM, and called for a regional mechanism to better harness the human resource in agricultural mechanization in the region. The Governing Council thanked the Technical Committee for its invaluable contribution in the history of CSAM, and agreed to explore new avenues to leverage the technical know-how of member countries to better serve the mandate of CSAM for the attainment of the SDGs. To implement ESCAP Resolution 71/1 on restructuring the conference structure of the Commission, the GC members also agreed on the proposed revisions to the statute of CSAM.

Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand and Viet Nam were elected as members of the Governing Council for 2015-2018 at the 71st Session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in June in Bangkok, Thailand.