Meeting opens with technical hiccups
Meeting opens with technical hiccups
The fourth session of the preparatory committee meeting on sustainable development kicked off on Monday, with around 2,000 delegates from 140 countries gathered at the Bali International Convention Center in Nusa Dua resort complex (photo above).
Over 6,000 delegates are expected to attend the meeting but most will arrive within the week to attend the ministerial meeting from June 5 through June 7.
The meeting is being attended by not only government representatives, but also from non-governmental organizations, the business community, and other civil society groups.
This is the last meeting ahead of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August, and is expected to result in a series of action plans that could be implemented by the United Nations member countries.
The meeting in Bali was not free of hiccups, with broken microphones and other disturbances with the sound system.
In the modest opening ceremony, the meeting's chairman Emil Salim was seen laughing several times when some of the delegates had to move around the conference room to find microphones that were working.
"I think everybody should check whether the microphones are working or not," Emil said, while laughing.
Chaos ensued at the media center, when the television sets provided for journalists did not produce any sound.
Journalists then had to run across the huge complex to reach the conference room only to find that the opening statement by Indonesian State Minister for Environment Nabiel Makarim was almost over.
While journalists were unable to get complete statements during the opening session, they got unexpected access to the closed door meeting as the sound leaked into the media center. The sound system apparently was not working properly.
"How could this happen, somebody has to turn this thing down," one of the UN officials said while moving about the media center.
The disturbances surely created headaches for the Indonesian committee. "This should not happen again tomorrow," said one of the staff.
Despite all the technical flaws, the meeting is still expected to yield results for the betterment of the people and the planet. -- JP