Press Office -
PR#87–2011, October 18, 2011 |
UNITING FOR A GREENER FUTURE 2011 International Conference on Green Urbanism
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H.E. Ambassador Toshinao Urabe opens the three-day conference with his welcome remarks. |
On October 18, 2011, H.E. Ambassador Toshinao Urabe, the Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines, delivered his message for a greener world at the Heritage Hotel Manila for the 2011 International Conference on Green Urbanism, which was a joint project of the Kyushu University Faculty of Design and the UP School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP-SURP). In his speech, Ambassador Urabe commended the kizuna, or friendship, between the two organizers of the conference -- Professor Kenichi Tanoue of Kyushu University and David Leonides T. Yap of UP-SURP. Their friendship has developed over the decades ever since Professor Yap was a PhD student in University of Tsukuba under the Japanese Government Scholarship. Ambassador Urabe expressed that a greener future can be attained through cooperation among the crew of the spaceship called Earth.
The conference was not only academic but also a warm reunion of long-time friends. This is because some of the speakers and guests of the conference are former recipients of the Japanese Government Scholarships, as well as Japanese Professors who took in Filipino scholars under their guidance in Japan. Since 1954, the Japanese Government Scholarship Program has produced many bright recipients in different fields. Included in this list of esteemed former scholars who participated the conference, aside from Dr. Yap, were UP-SURP faculty member, Dr. Cresencio M. Montabbo Jr., a graduate of Tsukuba University, Urban Planner Dr. Delfin San Pedro, a graduate of the University of Tokyo, and UP Diliman Chancellor Dr. Caesar Saloma, who took his Ph.D. studies in Osaka University.
Speech of Ambassador Toshinao Urabe
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