Shanghai Expo 2010 celebrate DEVNET Honor day
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September 8th 2010 has been DEVNET Honor day at Shanghai Expo 2010, a day dedicated by Shanghai 2010 Expo Bureau to DEVNET to celebrate DEVNET organization and Pavilion. World Expo authorities agreed to celebrate Devnet honor day on the 8th of September because it’s the day of the 10th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the launch of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, strongly supported by DEVNET.
For the Honor Day, a special DEVNET delegation was appointed to represent and celebrate DEVNET. The delegation was composed of: General Director of DEVNET; Mr. Wang Jun, chief of DEVNET Pavilion; Mr. Benjamin Milano, DEVNET Regional Director for Asia and Africa for TIPS/WINNER; Mr. Roberto Mendes, Director Devnet Brazil, Mr. David Cadman, chairman of ICLEI and vice mayor of Vancouver, Mr. Zheng Rui, director for Asia of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD); Mr. Romi Khosla, UNESCO / Habitat / UNDP consultant on urban; Mr. Michele Miari Fulcis, executive director of Asia Development Bank; Mr. Arsenio Rodriguez, international consultant for sustainable development and former director of the United Nations Environment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean; Mr. Liberato Bautista, president of The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO); Ms Zhang Lili, Chairwoman of Shanghai Women’s Federation; Mr. Yun Guangzhong, Mayor of Ordos City;Mr. Li Gang, Mayor of Danyang City; Mr. Dong Yanzhang, Executive Secretary General of World Cities Scientific Development Alliance and Mr. Ma Guoxiang, Member of CPPCC.
The honor day started with DEVNET flag-raising ceremony: a flag with DEVNET logo has been raised between China flag and the Expo flag outside the Expo center; after, in the main hall of the Expo Center in front of an audience of more than 300 people, the General Director of DEVNET and Chen Xianjin, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, delivered two speeches.
Quoting from DEVNET DG speech:
“We feel proud to celebrate our Honor Day the same day when 192 of head of states signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration to spur development by improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries.
Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals, while others are not on track to realize any. The major countries that have been achieving their goals include China (whose poverty population has reduced from 452 million to 278 million).（…） The People’s Republic of China has been one of the first countries to join Devnet. Since then Devnet has been developing its programme and activities to support what China was doing for consolidating its process of reforms and opening up led by Mr. Deng Xiaping.
Many reasons are behind the decision of Devnet to establish its own an independent Pavilion. First was to pay back the confidence of the central and local government of China, of the private sector, and the social and culture forces in Devnet and in our programmes.
Second because World Expo was a unique opportunity to summarize in our Pavilion our concept of how to build more resilient cities to give their own citizen a better life.
And above all these reasons because our Pavilion was thought to last far beyond the Expo not only as an icon of what meant this extraordinary world event, but mostly for continue being a focal point where Chinese local governments may find their own platform for launching its master plans, its projects as well as trade and investment opportunities for China and the rest of the world.
Although we have still almost 2 month to the end of World Expo we may say that our Pavilion is for Devnet the best stage to start the second and most important act of our performance in the People’s Republic of China”.
“The pavilion focuses on environmental protection, energy saving, high-tech relief efforts and conveys the message of -better life, more beautiful world-” said Chen Xianjin, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and he ended his speech saying that “We believe that DEVNET Pavilion will become a highlight of this Expo and it will help people from all the world and from China understand better DEVNET”.
After the ceremony, the protocol visits of DEVNET delegation and the Expo bureau counterpart in the China Pavilion and in DEVNET pavilion took place.
In the framework of DEVNET Honor day, took also place, inside the Conference room of DEVENT pavilion, the Signing Ceremony for the agreement between DEVNET and the government of the city of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, for the establishment of the first WINNER University in China, an Ink Stone Award Ceremony and the opening session of the World City Scientific Development Forum, held in Beijing on the 10th and 11th September and co-organized by DEVNET and WCSDF.
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