Opening Address

by

Mr. Fukusaburo Maeda

Chairman,

Asian Population and Development Association (APDA)

His Excellency Mr. Fidel V. Ramos, the President of the Philippines; Honorable Senator Neptali A. Gonzales, President of Senates ; Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Mr. Shin Sakurai M.P., Chairman of Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD); Distinguished Parliamentarians; Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of the Asian Population and Development Association, I would like to extend my heartily welcome to the 12th Asian Parliamentarians' Meeting on Population And Development .

It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to hold this meeting in the Philippines where remarkable development has been achieved under the leadership of His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos who is with us here today. His Excellency has been an old time friend and an active member of AFPPD and APDA, and is also the elder brother of Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani, the Chairperson of AFPPD Women's Committee. It is an unexpected pleasure for us that His Excellency, who is deeply versed in the topic of population and development, has kindly agreed to give the keynote speech for this meeting .

Being one of the first organizations to recognize the importance of women's issues in solving the population and development issue, we, APDA, had prepared a three-year plan to hold discussions under this topic; we have discussed " Family, Household and House Wife" in Beijing, China in 1994, and "Work and Economic Activities of Women" in Tokyo in 1995. This year, we will be discussing "Social Participation of Women and Policy Proposal for Women and Development" to sum up all the discussions that have been conducted up to now.

It is very significant that the discussion on this proposal will be held here in Manila. The Philippines is said to be one of the countries where women enjoy the highest social status in Asia and are making active advancement in the society. The Philippines Legislators' Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), which has been the parliamentarian's group engaged in the issue of population and development here in the Philippines, is co-chaired by two women -- Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani and Representative Aquino Oreta, whose tireless activities are known throughout the world.

Moreover, Senator Shahani is the world authority on the women's issues and has served as the secretary general at the Third World Conference on Women which was the women's conference held prior to the Beijing Conference (FWCW). I am convinced that to discuss and adopt our Proposal, and naming it as "The Manila Proposal" here in the