Mr. Abu Y.M. Selim
Deputy Regional Representative
UNDP, Bangkok
It is a great pleasure for me to speak on behalf of the UNDP on this important event. Mr. T. Niwa, the UNDP Regional Representative, sends his greetings and at the same time his regrets that he cannot attend this important Meeting.
It is indeed a very important event as it heralds a new beginning for the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia. In less than ten years the network has fulfilled its original goal and is on its way to achieve complete self-reliance as an intergovernmental institution. UNDP is proud to be associated with this endeavour. It is through your determined efforts and with the usual able assistance of FAO that NACA has achieved its purposes.
As you know, UNDP's role in regional and national development efforts is to provide catalytic support to development programmes in various countries. Therefore, it becomes a source of immense satisfaction for us to see that this joint endeavour has borne fruitful results, and a regional effort to institutionalize the Network has materialised. The Network has indeed come to a good beginning in the sense that the PGC is now about to decide on various matters related to the transition of NACA to an independent status; in about a year, you will be meeting formally to form a full-fledged council. We share your expectations in the same spirit as the other agencies collaborating with the Network feel; we eagerly look ahead to the time when the NACA shall have become fully self-reliant.
On this occasion, UNDP joins you in expressing the wish that your number may increase, that the Network expand and flourish, and may the development benefits generated by NACA multiply for greater national and regional progress. I reinterate, on behalf of UNDP, my sincere congratulations and best wishes to you.
