23
OPENING ADDRESS
given by The Hon. Balla Moussa DaffĂŠ Minister of Scientific and Technological Research Republic of Senegal
Distinguished Representative of the Director of the Unesco Regional Office for Education, Chairman of the International Biosciences Networks, Chairman of the African Biosciences Network, Chairman of CASAFA, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends. wish first of all, in the name of my President, his Government and in my own name to welcome all of you who have accepted (many of you from afar) to attend this important event marking at the same time the launching of the African Biosciences Network and the opening of a scientific meeting concerned with the parasitic weed Stria. I
Mr. Chairman of the International Biosciences Networks, it is with pleasure and pride that we welcome the choice of our country as the headquarters of the African Biosciences Network. This, to us, signifies your confidence in Senegal, which we will do all in our power to merit, as we have done before on similar occasions, when our national scientific potential was given the occasion to be strengthened through international collaboration. I can personally assure you that the Government of Senegal, and especially my own department, will do all it can to ensure that this newcomer to the international scientific network will
succeed.
this connection I would like to congratulate the International Council of Scientific Unions, Unesco and the IBN for having conceived the ABN, and the United Nations Development Programme for so generously supporting it.
In
Thus, under such promising signs, it is for me a real pleasure to be here this morning to preside over the opening of the ABN and to tell you of the high hopes that we have placed on this young organisation.
It is a fact that recent developments in science and especially in biology have already brought and will continue to bring, I am certain, appropriate solutions to basic human problems. In Africa we must seize upon all the opportunities which arise to put science to work for development. Thus, the training of competent scientific personnel is more than ever our highest priority. \Ve must also explore with the help of modern techniques of investigation, new avenues of research in order to assist man to live in the utmost harmony with his constantly evolving environment. Although comparisons are not always correct, we cannot but be confident about the ABN when we note the remarkable results obtained by the Latin American and Asian Biosciences Networks.