RI will host NAM ministerial meeting in April
RI will host NAM ministerial meeting in April
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will host a ministerial-level meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Bandung, West Java, this April, a government official said yesterday.
The meeting is to be held in conjunction with the 40th anniversary celebrations of the historic Asia-Africa conference. President Soeharto will attend the meeting as NAM chairman and it will take place on April 24 at the Merdeka building, which was the original conference venue in 1955.
April's meeting will mark the third commemoration of the conference after previous celebrations of the 25th and 30th anniversaries.
The 1955 conference was the first major meeting of the newly- independent nations of Asia and Africa and marked the beginning of a wave of decolonization on the two continents.
The Asia-Africa conference also became the embryo of what would evolve into the NAM in 1963.
A day after the commemoration, the ministers from NAM's 111 member-nations will attend a three-day meeting to discuss preparations for the upcoming Eleventh NAM Summit in Cartagena, Colombia.
The meeting will mark the last high-level meeting with Indonesia as NAM chairman. Indonesia assumed the chair after the Tenth NAM Summit in Jakarta in 1992 and will give-up the reigns to Colombia in October.
"We hope the ministers will address issues of immediate concern to the movement," said Nana Sutresna, NAM's chief executive assistant.
He told journalists that the ministers would also try to map out an initial draft of a declaration to be adopted in Colombia.
The ministerial meeting is to be preceded by a senior officials meeting on April 21 to 22.
Apart from the two events above, Indonesia will also host two other NAM events. The first is a Joint Meeting of Experts and Decision Makers on the Self-Propelling Growth Strategy on March 22-25 in Jakarta.
Sufficiency
The deputy coordinator of the Joint Meeting, Adi Sasono, said that the meeting will discuss strategies to develop local self- sufficiency.
"We hope that developing countries will be able to develop themselves without being dependent on foreign aid," explained Adi, who is also vice-chairman of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals.
Among the successful programs that will be looked at is the development of slum areas and the establishment of a fisherman's cooperative.
The Joint Meeting will be attended by academics, non- governmental organizations and government representatives from the NAM member states.
The second meeting will be a slight departure from the usually politically-oriented activities of NAM and will take the form of an exhibition and seminar on contemporary art from the Non- Aligned countries.
The exhibition, to be opened by President Soeharto, will be held here at the National Arts building from April 28 through June 30. (mds)