The 2nd World Conference on Green Productivity
9–11 Dec. 2002, Manila, Philippines
WELCOME ADDRESS
DR. EDUARDO T. GONZALEZ
President, Development Academy of the Philippines
Let me first extend our warmest greetings to our
distinguished guests and companions from the Asian
Productivity Organization; the United Nations Environment
Programme; the Asian Development Bank; the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources and Office of
the President of the Republic of the Philippines;
our notable environment experts, participants coming
from different countries, and also to our fellow Filipinos,
welcome and mabuhay!
For those who are not yet familiar with this term mabuhay, it means "long live."
It is our way of welcoming our foreign friends to
the country.
On behalf of the Development Academy of the Philippines,
I would like to express that we are greatly honored
to host for the second time, this World Conference
on Green Productivity, with the theme "Looking
Beyond the Johannesburg Summit for Sustainable Development."
I must say, this endeavor is a significant part of
historical developments in the global effort to sustain
our environment. As the 1992 Earth Summit inspired
the First World Conference on Green Productivity held
in 1996, so has the Johannesburg World Summit, held
just last September this year, inspired this Second
World Conference on Green Productivity.
The Johannesburg Summit has directed actions towards
meeting difficult challenges, including improving
people's lives and conserving our natural resources
in a world that is subject to what we call the "Second
Law of Thermodynamics," entropy, or simply degeneration.
We have the depleting ozone layer, extinction of
wild animals, worsening pollution in sea, air and
land, poverty, drought, forest degradation and many
more.
Taking action towards overcoming these difficulties
is not easy at all. I won't say that Green Productivity
is the "cure-all" technique. But we strongly
believe that GP is one solution to the root cause
of environmental degradation. By enabling businesses
to take environmental cautions while engaging into
their profitable ventures, our environment will become
safer, therefore contributing to the welfare of humanity.
By this time, I believe, Green Productivity or GP
is not any more a new philosophy to us. The Manila
Declaration on GP, yielded by the First World Conference,
has generated various efforts to intensify the promotion
of Green Productivity over the past six years in the
Asia Pacific Region and in many other countries. Green
Productivity, as a principle and strategy, has gained
wider understanding, stronger support and eventually
been applied in several areas such as management system,
appropriate technology, occupational health and safety,
energy, and many others.
With the support of the Asian Productivity Organization
as well as other international organizations, much
effort has already been made to establish Green Productivity
in the Philippines. Green Productivity has taken its
roots especially among the Small and Medium Enterprises
through the GP Demonstration, Dissemination Assistance
and Promotion programs.
The Development Academy of the Philippines spearheaded
GP promotion among local businesses and tried to influence
them to adopt cleaner technologies and environmental
management systems. With the aim of producing high
quality as well as environment-friendly goods and
services, awareness and training programs were carried
out for the Small and Medium Enterprises located in
the different regions of the country.
Now, let me take you to discovering what is ahead,
and what are the connections and or distinctions of
this conference as compared to the first one:
While the first conference pursued new strategies
that would ensure productivity in harmony with the
environment, this conference will review and evaluate
these strategies and define the GP future directions
in the wake of the Johannesburg Summit.
The first conference focused on cleaner technologies,
financing, human resources development and technology
transfer. This conference will tackle, in addition
to the ones mentioned, the current and emerging concerns
such as poverty reduction, water and energy issues,
and policy matters at the macro level.
Like the first one, this conference shall also attempt
to integrate the relevance of GP to various sectors
such as the industries, SMEs, government, academe
and communities.
Finally, as the conference theme suggests us to look
beyond, I exhort everyone to go beyond what will happen
in the next three days; that our sharing of insights
and ideas, experiences and practices will not be an
end itself, but this will serve as our inspiration
and motivation to help transform this world into a
nurturing and productive environment.
Again, I say to everyone, welcome and mabuhay!
