Address by Hon'ble Chairperson

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.