"I would like this forum to make efforts to prevent social disasters."Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri opened the fourth International Consortium for Social Development-Asia Pacific (ICSD-AP) conference here on Wednesday, which will be held from June 27-30, 2012.
Themed "Envisioning New Social Development Strategies Beyond Millennium Development Goals", the conference was attended by intellectuals, experts, social observers, and development actors from Asia-Pacific countries, the US, and the UK.
"I would like this forum to make efforts to prevent social disasters in light of the emergence of various social issues," Salim Segaf said in his opening address.
He called on the participants of the forum to set up an "early warning system" to avert such disasters.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Social Work Consortium Chairman Toto Utomo Budi Santoso said the conference would discuss social development in the context of post-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"The conference would serve two broad objectives," he stated.
"The first is to explore the lessons learned from the current MDG efforts in the Asia-Pacific region, and the second is to envision and initiate a preliminary discussion about new possible social development strategies for the post-2015 period," Toto said.
He also expressed hope that the conference would facilitate a productive exchange of ideas and experiences among participants, which would eventually steer future efforts to address the most pressing social problems.
(Uu.O001/INE/B003/KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
