Symposium on the Enhancement of Safety of Navigation and the Environmental Protection of the Malacca and Singapore

I am honored to speak here today at the Symposium on the Enhancement of Safety of Navigation and the Environmental Protection of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
As one of the organizers of this symposium, I am sincerely grateful to Minister of Transport, Dato’ Sri Chan Kong Choy, and to other government officials, representatives from the three littoral states, user industries such as INTERTANKO, ICS, and the Japanese Shipowners’ Association, and all of you for being here today. This is the first symposium to be held jointly by the research institutions of the littoral and user states. I would like to express my admiration and gratitude to the Maritime Institute of Malaysia for hosting this symposium and sparing no efforts in arranging such warm hospitality.

I believe that this collaboration between the research institutions of the littoral and user states is epoch-making, and will lead to solutions to the problems concerning navigational safety and environmental protection of the Malacca-Singapore Straits. The Nippon Foundation is truly honored to participate.

Recently, an Oscar-winning documentary called “An Inconvenient Truth” has been widely talked about. The subject of the film is the climate change caused by global warming.
Former US vice president, Al Gore, plays the lead role. The film shows a series of terrible scenes caused by climate change, such as the rising temperature of the sea, submerged coasts and retreating glaciers. It provides many concrete examples of the various harmful effects on the world’s oceans, which cover about three quarters of our earth. As the documentary shows, the impact on the sea now threatens economic development. It threatens our very lives.