BALI PREPARATORY MEETING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE OPENS WITH FLAG-RAISING CEREMONY

BALI PREPARATORY MEETING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

OPENS WITH FLAG-RAISING CEREMONY

Largest International Meeting Ever Held in Bali to Continue through 7 June

(Received from a UN Information Officer.)

BALI, 26 May -- The fourth and final preparatory meeting for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development opened this morning in Bali, Indonesia, with a flag raising ceremony presided over by the Minister for Economic Affairs of Indonesia, Dorodjatun Kuntjorojakti, and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai.

Several thousand participants, including representatives of United Nations Member States and over a thousand business, agency and community leaders, are taking in part in the meeting, which is scheduled to run until 7 June.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Kuntjorojakti welcomed participants and noted that the fact that a meeting of such importance was being held in Bali was a sign of the international community’s confidence in Indonesia, which had passed through a difficult period from 1997 to 1999.  Mr. Desai, who will serve as Secretary-General for the upcoming Summit, which will be held from 26 August to 4 September in Johannesburg, South Africa, also welcomed participants and wished them luck in their deliberations.

Joining Mr. Kuntjorojakti and Mr. Desai at the ceremony were, among others, Hasan Wirajuda, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Nabiel Makarim, Minister for Environment of Indonesia and Dewa Beratha, Governor of Bali.

Over the course of the session, participants will work to reach consensus on a programme of action that is “deliverable”, according to Emil Salim of Indonesia, Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development, which is acting as the preparatory committee for the Summit.  In addition, governments will work on a political declaration to be endorsed by heads of State in Johannesburg.

Towards reaching consensus on those matters, a multi-stakeholder dialogue will take place during the first two days of the conference, along with a plenary meeting to discuss governance for sustainable development.  Capacity-building and partnership initiatives for sustainable development will be the topics of parallel discussion groups supporting the dialogue.

From 29 to 31 May, intergovernmental discussions will take place on the Summit documents, followed by a ministerial-level segment for the last three days of the session. 

Over the course of the session, numerous related side events organized by representatives of civil society will be held on subjects such as “Governing Sustainable Development”, “Resilience and Sustainable Development”, “Education for Our Common Future” and “Grassroots Initiatives in the Forest”.

The session’s first plenary will be held tomorrow at 10 a.m. in conference room 1.

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