Masazumi NAGAMITSU

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure that the 6th Annual General Assembly is being held in Malmö and hosted by the World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö. I sincerely appreciate the efforts of Mr. Laubstein, President of WMU and Chair of IAMU (International Association of Maritime Universities), the staff of WMU and Malmö City, and Mr. Sekimizu of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This assembly would not have been possible without their tireless cooperation.

When the first Annual General Assembly was held in Istanbul in 2000, we had 27 IAMU member institutions. Now, IAMU consists of the 48 institutions from all over the world. I believe that this progress of IAMU is largely owed to your dedication to human resources development and network establishment of maritime affairs. The Secretary's Office, which is now located in Tokyo, continues to be successful under the leadership of Mr. Yamamoto, and I see that the foundations of IAMU have become established. At this point, I look forward to see that the results of our members' research will be applied to cases in the maritime affairs.

As some of you may have already known, the Chairperson of The Nippon Foundation, Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, has succeeded to the post of Honorary Chair of IAMU, in place of Ms. Ayako Sono, the previous Chair of the Foundation. Mr. Sasakawa often says that "It takes ten years for a tree to grow, but a hundred years to foster human resources", and he indicates that education is a task with a long process. At the same time, he truly understands the importance of human resource development.,/p>

Regarding maritime affairs, we are now searching for solutions to some existing problems. There have been maritime accidents caused by a lack of skills on the part of the crew, various problems occurring on-board ships, and many challenges of the international crews. The Nippon Foundation believes that human resource development and network establishment can be the fundamental solutions to these clear and present problems. Additionally, The Nippon Foundation knows that the Maritime Education and Training (MET) institutions can improve the level of the system through reinforcing the MET network with IAMU, and it also knows that the IAMU can contribute to human resources development in the realm of maritime affairs. Therefore, while The Nippon Foundation looks forward to seeing the progress of the roles of IAMU in the context of maritime education and training, The Nippon Foundation would like to support IAMU and its activities.

In this Assembly, we will present and discuss the theme, "Maritime Security and MET." I sincerely hope that we will not only reinforce but also expand the IAMU network through the project and technical sessions, and that this Assembly contributes to the progress of world maritime affairs. Finally, I would once again like to thank the many people who have worked tirelessly to make this general assembly possible.