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WELCOME SPEECH YBHG. DATO’ AMINAH ABDUL RAHMAN

DIRECTOR GENERAL NATIONAL POPULATION AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT BOARD,

MALAYSIA AT THE INTERNATIONAL FAMILY DISCOURSE,

12 DECEMBER 2012, HOTEL RENAISSANCE, KUALA LUMPUR

BISMILLAH HIRRAHMANIRAHIM.

(Salutation)

Y. BHG TAN SRI DATO’ HAJJAH NAPSIAH OMAR PENGERUSI LEMBAGA PENDUDUK DAN PEMBANGUNAN KELUARGA NEGARA YANG BERBAHAGIA DR. WASIM ZAMAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON MANAGEMENT OF POPULATION PROGRAMMES (ICOMP) AHLI-AHLI LEMBAGA LPPKN KETUA-KETUA JABATAN DISTINGUISHED PAPER PRESENTERS YANG BERBAHAGIA TAN SRI/DATO’/DATIN WAKIL-WAKIL MEDIA TUAN-TUAN/PUAN-PUAN

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Assalamualaikum / Salam Sejahtera and Good Morning, 1. Bersyukur kepada Allah swt kerana dengan limpahNya dapat

kita semua hadir di majlis pagi ini iaitu International Family

Discourse, anjuran LPPKN dan ICOMP. Saya juga ingin

mengucapkan ribuan terima kasih kepada Yang Berbahagia

Tan Sri Napsiah Omar, pengerusi LPPKN kerana sudi hadir.

2. Bagi memudahkan peserta-peserta daripada luar negara

izinkan saya berucap dalam bahasa inggeris.

3. First and foremost I would like to take this opportunity to

welcome all paper presenters and participants in particular,

those from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, India,

Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand to this

International Family Discourse 2012 jointly organized by the

National Population and Family Development Board, an agency

under the Ministry of Women, Family and Community

Development, Malaysia and International Council on

Management of Population Programmes (ICOMP).

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

4. As we are all aware, the family is the most fundamental building

block of our society. The rapidly changing society is putting new

pressures on families, making it important to review how well

they are standing up to new circumstances, expectations and

values. The stronger the families, the stronger the society and

the nation. Just as a chain is as strong as its weakest link, a

society is only as strong as its weakest unit. By understanding

the factors that weaken the family unit and developing

innovative strategies and programmes that strengthen the

family institution, would be the greatest need of our times in

developing nations. The world today is undergoing many

profound changes and transformations that have impacted

families around the globe. Nevertheless, we see some families

are coping well with these trying times and are happier than

others. Against this scenario many parties, governments and

agencies are developing indexes of happiness and wellbeing.

For example, the United Nations have compiled the World

Happiness Report earlier this year and consequently the United

Nations has declared March 20th as the World Happiness Day

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(as pointed by a delegate during the recent world family summit

held in Brazil last week).

5. Changes in family structures, population ageing, increasing

migration and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are our main concern.

The proportion of older persons in the total population has

continued to rise throughout the world, and it is expected to

accelerate during the next few decades. This will have major

implications on all aspects of family life, including family

composition and living arrangements, housing and health care.

These trends challenge the family’s ability to fulfill basic

functions of reproduction, socialization as well as needs of

family members regarding health, nutrition, shelter, physical

and emotional care, and personal development.

6. Similarly, Malaysia is on the road to developing its own grewth

model which incorporates both the Economic and Happiness

Indexes. We are pleased that LPPKN, Family Wellbeing Index

has been utilised for this purpose.

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

7. Malaysia has recently formulated its National Family Policy

which was approved by the cabinet in 2010. It was not an easy

task to do so especially when mainstreaming the family

perspective in all level of socia economic development is

relatively new in many countries and as such there was little

international experiences that Malaysia could fall on to. It is our

great hope that this jointly organized discourse will create a

platform for exchange of innovative ideas and best practices

towards greater understanding of mainstream family well being.

The Organizing Committee members and the National

Population and Family Development Board have structured the

discourse into plenary sessions with the objective of optimizing

the presence of so many dedicated experts, advocates and

service providers here today. We truly hope that with all the

presentations sessions, we would be able to bring back

innovative ideas and strategies on population and family

development programmes.

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8. Once again on behalf of the Organisation Committee, I would

like to thank our friends who have made this discourse a reality

especially Dr. Wasim Zaman who has been instrumental in

linking LPPKN with the experts from ICOMP member countries.

Our appreciation too to Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Napsiah

Omar, for agreeing to officiate the discourse this morning.

Thanks too to all the distinguished paper presenters, agencies,

NGOs and individuals who have contributed to the success of

this discourse.

Thank you and wassalaam.