Asian Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Population and Development at MLH

The 27th Asian Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Population and Development organised by The Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) was held on 18 & 19 July at Mount Lavinia Hotel.

The Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) was established in 1982 and has since been working towards fulfilling its mission to address population and development issues and build a sustainable society where every person can live with dignity. The international parliamentarians’ activities on population and development started here in Colombo in 1979. Sri Lanka was one of the first countries in South Asia to address the population issue and simultaneously promote social development such as improving the national literacy rate.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of AFPPD. Many prominent foreign dignitaries, leading Parliamentarians and representatives of international, regional and national organisations graced the occasion. The key note speech “The world population at 7 billion” was given by Minister of Health, Maithripala Sirisena.

The experts discussed at length the issues of population and development. Among the other main topics that were discussed were, impacts and implications on society, impact on poverty, health and development, adaptation measures to climate change, achieving sustainable development and economic development in a world of 7 billion people, strategies to achieve sustainable development in a world of 7 billion people.

The meeting was officially declared opened by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The opening ceremony was addressed by Yasuo Fukuda MP, former Prime Minister of Japan and Chair of AFPPD/ APDA JPFP. During his speech he thanked President Mahinda Rajapaksa for graciously accepting his proposal to hold the meeting in Sri Lanka.

Fukuda further stated “as elected representatives of the people, each one of us with a sense of ownership needs to genuinely exchange our thoughts and learn from each other through serious and thorough discussion”.

The meeting was organised by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and hosted by the Ministry of Health, the Government of Sri Lanka; with the support of UNFPA, The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population & Development (AFPPD).  

General Manager MLH - Anura Dewapura welcomed Yasuo Fukuda MP, former Prime Minister of Japan on 16 July when he arrived at the Mount Lavinia Hotel for this event.