It is a tremendous honor for us to have the representatives of parliamentarians from the Asian countries gather here in the City of Kobe. I would like to welco me you all on behalf of the citizens of Kobe.

Humanity has experienced increase of population in an unprecedented scale after entering this century and various problems including food shortage, poverty, en vironmental de-struction and urbanization are occurring on a global scale. Thes e problems have be-come particularly serious in Asia where 60% of the world's p opulation live.

l have learned that, following the discussion with focus on women until last ye ar that led to adoption of the Manila Resolution, you will be talking about wat er from a global viewpoint this year under the theme of "Population and Water." I hope that the meeting will be fruitful, as water is an indispensable item for human survival as well as for the development of economy and culture.

With the support and guidance of United Nations Population Fund, the City of Ko be founded "Kobe Asian Urban Information Center" in 1989 to help solve the popu lation problem in Asia, particularly numerous urban problems that accompany con centration of population in cities. In addition to carrying out study and resea rch for solving various urban problems, the Center is holding seminars for urba n planning administrators of Asia and has invited administrators from more than 40 cities to Kobe.

We have also established the Kobe International Cooperation Center in 1993. Thi s Cen-ter is accepting trainees from the developing countries and working with NGOS based in Kobe. Furthermore, we established the WHO Collaboration Center in Kobe, in 1996 to study health problems that accompany urbanization, expansion o f slums and aging.

Kobe has developed as an international port city and maintained strong connecti on with Asian countries. We therefore would like to create a system that will m ake it possible for us to cooperate with Asian cities at municipality level thr ough these three centers.

Two years have passed since the great earthquake. I would like to take this opp ortunity to cordially thank your countries for the warm support that your count ries kindly offered at the time of the earthquake to encourage the people of Ko be.