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Opening Remarks by
Kumari Selja Hon’ble Chairperson of
the Bureau of APMCHUD on the occasion of
its 2nd
Meeting on 27th October 2007
at Amman, Jordan
His
Excellency Mr. Hosni Abu Ghaida, Minister for Public Works and Housing, Jordan,
His Excellency Mr. Khawajah Daloobi, Vice Minister for Housing, Iran,
Ambassadors and other representatives from China, Azerbaijan and Malaysia and
all dignitaries from the member countries, it is my proud privilege to be here
in this beautiful country of Jordan at the invitation of Hon’ble Minister for
Public Works and Housing, Jordan, Mr.
Hosni Abu Ghaida. On behalf of the
Bureau, and on my personal behalf I would like to express our heartiest
gratitude for his hospitality and kind courtesies.
We can all see the extent of personal interest His Excellency has taken
to make this event a memorable one.
While
enroute my way to Jordan, I came across a news item regarding the initiative of
the Jordan Government for community
development fund to finance community wide services, including social facilities
and affordable housing. This
initiative aims to realize a part of the financial windfall gains received by
landowners in designated areas to assist the local communities in the form of
community development fund. I would
like to congratulate HE Mr. Ghaida for this innovative initiative.
The
APMCHUD shall endavour to highlight such best practices in the region and
disseminate the same to the member countries for effective replication.
We should also attempt to develop an exchange program wherein there is an
effective exchange of ideas and vision to be able to tackle the emerging
challenges in the sector. The
mutual cooperation and experience sharing among the member countries shall be a
major step in making APMCHUD a successful initiative.
As
the distinguished members are aware, the Bureau in its first meeting held on 15th
April 2007 at Nairobi had specifically desired that we should move ahead with
drawing up of plans for concretizing actions that would facilitate a focused
approach towards achieving the ambitious agenda set in the Delhi Declaration. I am sure that this meeting would result in further firming
up of an action plan for putting in place the facilitatory requirements for the
same.
The
secretariat has developed a website for the APMCHUD, which shall be launched
today. I would like to request all members to give their valuable suggestions
for improving the same and making it more useful.
We should try to make it interactive and attempt to provide relevant
information on the member countries. I
would urge the countries to forward such information that would be put up on the
website. We shall also provide links to the relevant government sites
for each country.
I
would like to place on record my appreciation for the efforts made by HUDC of
Jordan under the leadership of Mr. Shehadah Abu Hdaib, Director General and his
team. I would also like to
congratulate the Director General on being conferred the Royal Medal from the
King in recognition of his outstanding achievement in the housing and urban
development sectors.
I
once again welcome all the participants and I would request the Hon’ble
Members of the Bureau to share their views before we take up the Agenda Items.