The report on the seventeenth meeting of The Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council and IPFC Symposium on the Development and Utilization of Inland Fishery Resources, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from the 27th to 1st November, is presented. Among the topics discussed were: development and utilization of inland fishery resources, research and statistics, management, increasing production and improving utilization and distribution of fish in the IPFC region and national and intergovernmental activities.