Opening Ceremony

[10:00-11:30, February 12, 1996]

Address
by
Senator Neptali A. Gonzales
Senate President, The Republic of Philippines

- Population and Development: Challenges for Parliamentarians in The 2 1 st Century -

It is a privilege to join all of you today in this 12th Asian Parliamentarians Meeting on Population and Development. I am specially honored to welcome you to the Philippines in behalf of the Philippine Senate which is co-sponsoring this historic meeting with the Asian Population and Development Association(APDA) and the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD).

This event is made more significant by the bipartisan, and multisectoral collection of participation of some 50 parliamentarians from different countries, regional, national, and local leaders, international and local NGO 's and the media, all assembled this morning to collectively attest that while we may differ in our own national interests, political affiliations, religious identification, and ideological beliefs, we all agree that population management is a key to our regional and national survival.

The themes to be tackled in this two day conference "Women in the 21st Century: Strategy for Prosperity and Peace" and "Strategy for the World Summit on Food Security: Food and Population" are both timely and urgent for the Asia Pacific Region, and under-score the vital role that women play in the world's quest for prosperity and peace and ensuring food security to the teeming millions of mankind.

Global estimates place the world population at about 5.6 billion by the end of 1995 and is expected to reach 6 billion before the turn of the century. By 2025, according to United Nations projection, the total world population will have grown to between 7.6 billion and 9.0 billion, with 8.3 billion considered to be the likely figure, if population management programs all over the world are successfully implemented.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for close to 60% of the world's inhabitants and counts on three of the four most populous countries in the world, The need to manage this region's rapid population growth has become a central agenda of governments and citizens who feel the pressure of meeting the escalating need for basic social services such as housing, education, and health care; environmental protection; rational land use; agricultural productivity; as well as to fill the need for employment.

Increasingly over the past three decades, parliamentarians through the International Parliamentarians Union (IPU), regional organizations like the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFFPD), and the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) which are present here today, and national groups like the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), met and forged consensus on issues related to children in Rome (1990), population in Cairo

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