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| 6th General Assembly | |
Multifold growth of AFPPD |
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Dr. Prasop felt a sense of pride that a great deal of systematic planning and development had taken place following the establishment of a full-time secretariat in Bangkok in 1990. Now, the AFPPD was a source of strength not only to its national committees but also to other regions. The AFPPD now had national committees in most of the Asian and Pacific countries. Its newsletter was widely circulated, and its e-mail news service was an innovative effort. The Forum had its own web site, which contained a wide variety of information pertaining to the AFPPD and had links to UNFPA and ESCAP. The AFPPD had also become a member of the Coordinating Committee of NGOs (CONGO). |
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Earth is giving warning signs.
Dr. Nakayama said that parliamentarians had the possibility and authority to mobilize resources, both human and financial, and to resolve population problems. They had to be mindful of the enormity of their task, but have the boldness to undertake it. And they had to act now. The 6th General Assembly was the start of a new beginning. |
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| Population issues
key to finding solutions at the grassroots. - Mr. Shin Sakurai, M.P.
There were many schools of thought, but it was generally recognized that 8 billion people was the limit the planet was capable of supporting. This number matched the upper limit of the estimated low-growth scenario. The parliamentary movement had grown as well, as had the working relationship among the various regional parliamentary and legislative groups on population and development. As a result, there were now regional fora of parliamentarians in each major region of the world and a need for global network of parliamentarians committed to the two important issues of population and development. Mr. Sakurai said the contributions of Dr. Sadik and her Deputy, Mr. Hirofumi Ando, had been crucial to the success of the parliamentarians’ activities, and he expressed his heartfelt respect and gratitude to them. Mr. Sakurai said that today’s trade rules assumed a surplus of food. But lessons drawn from population and environmental issues suggested an era of want rather than of plenty. It was not right, therefore, to give up food production or neglect looking after the basis of food production. Rather, it was important to build a rational solution from a long-term perspective by changing the rules of international trade to reflect the projected increase of population and the earth’s capacity to ensure humankind a sufficient supply of food. The population issue was the foundation of all global issues. Addressing the population issue was therefore the key to finding solutions at the root. Parliamentarians had a huge role to play in this. By working hand-in-hand, trust was born. Past activities had prepared the ground for a global network of parliamentarian activities. In order to achieve sustainable development by resolving population problems, it was important for the elected officials of the people to join hands across national borders, seize the initiative and work on governments. Hope did not come by waiting. It must be found. He called on parliamentarians to work together to achieve sustainable development and resolve population issues. |
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Now is the time for decisions and actions. Prof. Toshio Kuroda, Director Emeritus, Nihon University-Japan, made a presentation on the topic of Asian-Pacific Population in the Next Millennium: Socio-Economic Impact on Asia, focussing on a few crucial population issues in the coming years. We must promote
self-sufficiency in food. Professor Hiroshi Tsujii, Kyoto University - Japan, made a presentation that focused on three factors determining food shortages in the twenty-first century: policy factors, supply factors, and demand factors. The main policy factor that had caused world grain stock/use ratios to fall since 1987 was the change in agricultural policy in Europe and the United States in the mid-1980s from those of high protectionism, surplus accumulation and heavy export subsidy to those of lower protection, less surplus, less export subsidy and more concern for the environment. This change in policy had effectively reduced the grain stock of the European Union and the United States, and thus of the world, and raised world grain prices. The supply factors included: a drop in per-capita harvest of cereals and grains; shortage of agricultural land; shortage of water; competition for land use; deterioration of soil quality; and a decline in fertilizer, irrigation and tractor productivity, among others. The primary demand factor was the increase in per-capita income in developing countries, which resulted in a rapid increase in demand. This in turn had the effect of reducing the world grain stock ratio. This rapid increase in demand was expected to continue into the early twenty-first century. Professor Tsujii concluded with a proposal to modify the free-trade rule of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in favour of a policy that would promote self-sufficiency in the production of food staples in each country. In his opinion, the liberalization of rice trade under the current WTO system would destroy the food security of the huge numbers of poor and hungry people in developing countries in Asia. This was because the international rice trade market was extremely thin, unstable and unreliable compared with the market for other important grains. |
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Senator Prof. Dr. Prasop Ratanakorn,
Secretary General of AFPPD, in his brief report on the Forum, said that today was a very
important day in the life of the AFPPD. When the organization was founded in 1981, no one,
including himself, ever thought it would grow into such a movement sparking the
imagination of other parliamentarians in Europe, Latin and North America, the Caribbean,
and Africa.
Dr. Taro Nakayama, M.P., Former Foreign Minister of Japan and
Chairman of the Japanese Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP), explained how
as the world was about to enter a new century, the earth was issuing a serious warning
that it was nearing its capacity to absorb the increasing numbers of people. The
environment was deteriorating, and the impact of population on it had become more serious.
As members of parliament, parliamentarians were responsible for the policies of their
nations. But they also had to work together to ensure the common future of humankind. It
was the JPFP’s strong conviction that this perspective should be clearly reflected in
the Niigata Declaration that would be adopted at the meeting.
Earlier, Hon. Mr. Shin Sakurai, Chairman of the AFPPD, said that the
6th General Assembly would be the AFPPD’s last conference of the century as the world
entered a new millennium. Mr. Sakurai wondered how future historians would measure the
twentieth century. Would they say that it was a century when humankind at last learned the
limits of the planet Earth? At the beginning of the century, the world’s population
stood at just around 1.6 billion. In a matter of days, it would be exceeding 6 billion.
