Honorable Toshitami Kaibara, Governor of Hyogo Prefecture; Honorable Kazutoshi
Sasayama, Mayor of Kobe City; Honorable Shin Sakurai, Chairman of Aslan Forum o
f Parliamentarians on Population and Development; Honorablc Prasop Ratanakorn,
Sccretary General of Asian Forum of Parllamentarians on Population and Developm
cnt; Ilonorable Katsuhlde Kitatani, Senior Advisor of United Nations Fund for P
opu]ation and Development, Honorable V. T. Palan, Regiona] Director of East and
Southeast Asia tmd Oceania Region of International Planned Parenthood Federatl
on, Distinguished Pilrliamentarlans, Ladles and Gentlemen.
Thanks to your enthusiastic discusslon and cooperation, we were able to complet
e the 13th Asian Parllamentarians Meeting on Populatlon and Development in grea
t success. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all of you. I w
ould also like to cxprcss my gratitude to Mr. Yukio Takenaka, Managing Director
of Kobe International Association. Mr. Daisaku Komatsu, Secretary General of A
sian Urban Information Ccnter of Kobe, and Staffs of the secretariat.
This marks thc thirteenth conference of Asian Parliamentarlans Mccting on Popul
ation Lmd Development. We have entered what is referred to in English expressio
n as "teenager" We are Interpreting thls to be the point at which we will break
out of seedtime and move on towards matured activlties. We would like to reque
st further guidance and coopcration of those of you who are here today in thls
regard.
We humans are not capable of surpassing the forces of nature. We have no choice
but to engage in "the work humans are capable of" to thc best of our ability.
Our task is to maximize thls work we are capable of through our intelllgence an
d effort so that the future of humanity will be full of hope.
"Water, which has been the theme of this year's discussion is said to be the fi
rst resource to become scarce on this planet. Population is becoming an increas
ingly urgent task that must be addressed. The effort of parliamentarians is ess
ential in creating a promising future for the humanity.
We were fortunate to hear the magnificent presentations by Dr. Zenbei Uchijima,
Dr. Vo-Tong Xuan and Dr. Yasutaka Ogawa on wthe topic of water resources and p
opulation from their respective viewpoints of environment, agriculture and publ
ic health. We have also had the opportunity to hear thought-provoking reports b
y Dr. Shigeto Kawano
