APDF Ex Co meeting
Feb. 28, 2007 18:00-20:00
At the Restaurant of Hotel De Moc
Attendants;
Ms. Judy Wee, President of APDF, Singapore
Mr. Joseph Kwok, Vice chair of the APDF and Chair of Information Committee
Mr. Ryosuke Matsui, Secretary General
Mr. Alam Khandakar, Chair of the Nest Conference and Chair of the Committee onChildren with Disabilities
Mr. Monthan Buntan, Chair of the Convention and BMF Committee
Mr. Topong Khulkanchit, Chair of the Accessible Transportation Committee
Mr. Tewai Halatau, Chair of Gender Committee
Guest : Mr. Hye Howlader, Secretary of the Ministry of Social WelfareObservers :Ms. Aiko Akiyama, UNESCAP
Mr. Akiie Ninomiya, APCD
Mr. Penelope Price, RI
Mr. Osamu Nagase, IIMs. Ferida Yesmen, DRRA, Bangladesh
Mr. Halatau, New Zealand
Secretariat: Etsuko Ueno
Draft minutes of APDF Ex. Co. meeting:
Judy welcomed all who attended the meeting.
１．APDF GA and Conference in 2008
Mr. Hye Howlader, Secretary of Ministry of Social Welfare expressed his appreciation
for the APDF meetings in Dhaka to be organized this February, and indicated that theBangladesh Government would provide its strong support for the success of theconference. He also indicated that he expected many participants from overseas.
Mr. Alam Khandakar, President of the National Forum Working with the Disabled（NFWOD）of Bangladesh explained the preparation of the APDF General Assemblyand Conference to be held in Dhaka in Dhaka based on its first announcement.

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The followings were confirmed.
-Theme : Disability and Development – Practical Strategies-Date : Feb 5−7, 2008
-Venue: Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center (BCFCC), which isaccessible. One room for the plenary session and 4 rooms, which could be used for 5
sectoral sessions, are reserved for the Conference.
-For accommodations, guest houses are available, which cost about US$30-35 perperson per night. There are several accessible guest houses.
-Expected number of the participants is about 500, including 200 from overseas.
-APDF Ex Co meeting will be held either in the same venue or in one of the guest houses,
which has internet accessibility, in the late afternoon of Feb. 4, 2008.
-APDF General Assembly will be organized from 4:00 to 6:30 on Feb. 5.
-Registration fee is US$100 for participants from Asia and the Pacific. Payment ofregistration fee needs to be made through the bank transfer or on arrival. Credit card
is not acceptable.
-The International Airport is accessible.
Issues to be confirmed are as follows.
-Communication services :The organizing committee is to ask a relevant Indian organization for its cooperation toprovide American sign- language interpreters for the Conference.
-Keynote speaker
Prof. Yunus, President of Gramin Bank was originally considered to be a keynote
speaker, however, as he is going to establish a political party, he will no more suitablefor it. Therefore, the organizing committee is now looking for another appropriate
keynote speaker.
-Side event:
The World Bank may be interested in organizing a special program on disability
inclusive development in conjunction with the APDF Conference.
ICECV also shows an interest in organizing a program.
Other organizations, which are interested in organizing side events, should make acontact with Mr. Nafees Rahman, secretariat of the Organizing Committee.(E-mail:nfowd@bdmail.net)-APDF secretariat is to request ESCAP support to the APDF meetings by making use ofits logo as well as sending a representative to the Conference to address its opening
ceremony to provide APDF with its strong moral.

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-Simultaneous interpretation booth is available with the extra cost. Its cost will beinformed later.
-APDF members are expected to promote participation from the region throughinformation provision
The information on the Conference will be updated in the website of National Forum
Working with the Disabled. www.nfowd.com
2. Activities of APDF
2-1 Mr. Tue explained about the International Exchange Program with the theme of
Friendship, Cooperation, Equity, Integration to be organized in Hanoi from June 8 to 11,
2007.

This is an exchange program among people with disabilities of 4 countries(Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam ) Participants from other countries arealso welcome. An APDF representative is expected to attend at its opening ceremony togive an address.
The registration fee is US$515 which includes accommodation, dinners, lunches, fieldvisits(villages and Harlong Bay)The details will be announced in the website of NCCD this April, which will be linked
with the website of APDF.
Mr. Joseph Kwok asked about a possibility of organizing the joint committee meeting ofthe Information Working Committee and the Accessible Tourism Working Committee inconjunction with the Exchange program in Hanoi this June.
This will be followed up with Mr. Tue by the secretariat.
Mr. Joseph Kwok will take part in the program, representing APDF, and make anaddress at its opening ceremony as requested.
2-2 Topong also explained am Accessible Tourism Conference to be organized in
Bangkok toward the end of November or early December 2007 as a second event of theAccessible Conference held in Taipei in 2005.

Topong indicated that the City of

Bangkok agreed to host this conference. Joseph suggested the involvement of theAccessible Tourism Committee chaired by Mr. Robert Lin.
3. Relationship with IDA (International Disability Alliance)3

Judy reported the result of the telephone conference among IDA members which are
DPI, IFHOH, II, RI, WBU, WFD, WDDB and WNUSP. IDA is now considering toexpand its membership to regional structures.

European Disability Forum (EDF)

already expressed their interest in becoming its member. APDF was asked to consider
to join IDA.
After lengthy discussions on the pro-cons to become a member of IDA it is agreed toinform IDA that APDF is interested in becoming its member as APDF has nothing tolose to be its member.
4. APDF Conference in 2010
Mr. Tue proposed to organize the APDF Conference in Hue in 2010. He was asked todecide its schedule and inform Ex Co members.
5. Collaboration with UNESCAP and other relevant international agencies
In order to have closer collaboration with the ESCAP in regard to the promotion of BMF
and BMF plus Five (to be adopted at the High-level Intergovernmental meeting to beheld at the ESCAP Headquarters this September), the following possibilities arediscussed.
5-1 Possibility of a joint program with UNESCAP in September, 2007
UN ESCAP organizes the High Level Intergovernmental Meeting in Bangkok from
September 19 to 21, 2007.
5-2 Possibility of a joint program in relation to GPDD in the APDF Conference in Feb.
2008.

According to Ms. Akiyama, the World Bank also showed its interest inidentifying an entering point of GPDD( Global Partnership for Disability andDevelopment) at its meeting held in India last month. It might be an excellent
opportunity to organize a joint program on GPDD in Dhaka on the occasion of the APDFConference next February. However, it seems that it might take some time for its
making a concrete action.
6. Information from APCD
Ms. Ninomiya mentioned that APCD was going to send a mission to the Central Asian
countries for the purpose of looking into a possibility of expanding APCD target
countries to the Central Asia as its second phase activities.
The meeting was adjourned at 20:00pm.

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