Home

Login

Contact us

Cette page existe uniquement en anglais

Home >2002 Regional Conference Closing Speech

2002 IUSSP Regional Population Conference
Bangkok, Thailand
June 10-13, 2002

IUSSP President's Speech during the Closing Ceremony

Your Royal Highness,
Mr President of the Chulalongkorn university,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear Mercedes, I shall be very short. I only want to say three things.

First, I am very happy with the success of this Conference. Not only were we very delighted and honoured to have the nice first morning so kindly presided over by Her Royal Highness, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, but we also had two plenary debates that were quite attractive and lively, and very interesting regular sessions. The high level of the quality of the scientific contents of these sessions demonstrates that Asian population studies are in a very good health and that international exchanges on these topics can be fruitful in this part of the world. I can tell you that, at least the sessions I have been able to attend consisted of high quality paper presentations, discussants who really discussed the papers, and lively and active participation from the floor. And I was told that it was the same in most other sessions. I would like to congratulate all of you. And also to thank you because this success is even more a success if we take into account the difficulties encountered because of a tight conference budget. I would especially thank all of those who worked so much and so well in spite of the lack of support, including those participants who accepted reduced travel allowances or did their best to find their own travel support. I am afraid that more and more the attendance at population conferences and seminars will be at this price and the success here encountered is greatly encouraging for the future.

Second, I would like to thank again every body who contributed to the organisation of this first South-East Asian Conference. Indeed, I would like to thank again those institutions which made the conference possible by providing financial support, especially the uNFPA, the Wellcome Trust, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Asian Meta Centre for Population and Sustainable Development, the IIASA and the WHO.

But I would especially like to thank everybody who gave so much of their time and their capabilities to organize the conference.

On the Thai side, so many people acted so efficiency that you will forgive me for not acknowledging each of them. But I do want to express my gratitude to scholars, students and staff of the Chulalongkorn university, the College for Population Studies and the Thai Population Association. I want to devote my personal thank to Vipan Prachuabmoh and Nappaporn Chayovan who mobilised so efficiently all the forces of these institutions. I can tell them that IUSSP is deeply grateful to them and through them to so many people who participated in the National Organizing Committee and contributed to the impressive organisation of this beautiful conference.

I would also like to thank, on the IUSSP side, both its Secretary General, Mary Kritz, and its staff, especially Landis Mackellar, for their excellent work. I am especially grateful to Mary who, as soon as elected, had immediately to get involved in the organisation and finances of the conference and who succeeded so well to solve the problems in the best possible way.

Finally, I would like to express to you, Dear Mercedes, my very sincere congratulations and warm thanks for having chaired so kindly and so successfully the International Organizing Committee. This service to the IUSSP follows a long distinguished history of support to the union. I warmly thank you for all these contributions. The least I can tell you is that I would be very glad, but also very surprised, if, in 2020, a dozen years after completing my own mandate as IUSSP president, I am still able to do the same !!! Beyond your leadership of the IOC, I would of course also like to thank all of the other members of that committee.

My third point will be very brief. I am simply delighted to invite all of you and all of your Asian colleagues interested in population studies to prepare to come to France in a couple of years to participate in the 2005 IUSSP General Conference. I still cannot tell you exactly where that conference will take place. It may be Montpellier, Tours, Nantes or elsewhere. Whatever the place, I hope very much that France 2005 will be as successful as Bangkok 2002!!!

Let me add that several of you have taken advantage of these meetings to stop by the IUSSP booth and to sign up as members. Our booth will be open until 2, today, and we would like those of you who are not members and wish to become member, to take this opportunity to do it by signing up now or picking up a membership application form. Thank you for joining us!

I cannot close without thanking all of you again who have participated in this conference. So, thanks to everybody and, please, come to France in 2005. You will be very welcome!

However, beyond these substantive reasons for organizing a South-East Asian Conference, there is an additional one, which could be relevant if our work is well appreciated by the audience. Facing to these huge past and future population questions, the number of demographers and other scientists interested in population studies has grown in these countries, often at the very top level. However, I have to confess to you that very few of them are members of the IUSSP. And, clearly the reason for that is not a matter of competition with other similar institutions since no regional association exists as it is the case for Europe, Northern America, Africa or Arab countries. Yet, it seems to me that the need for international scientific cooperation and debate is crucial to give the scientific work all its expansion, richness and completeness. If, at its modest level, this conference could encourage most of South-East Asian demographers and population experts either to join IUSSP or to found a new regional association or, better, to do both, it would certainly be one of its very useful outputs, and I obviously express the wish that it should be done!

Let me add that several of you have taken advantage of these meetings to stop by the IUSSP booth and to sign up as members. Our booth will be open until 2, today, and we would like those of you who are not members and wish to become member, to take this opportunity to do it by signing up now or picking up a membership application form. Thank you for joining us!

I cannot close without thanking all of you again who have participated in this conference. So, thanks to everybody and, please, come to France in 2005. You will be very welcome!

Jacques Vallin