Ammon News -
AMMONNEWS - MAJLIS EL HASSAN - WANA Forum 2010 opened in Amman today (Sunday, May 16, 2010) under the theme “Pursuing Supranational Solutions to the Challenges of Carrying Capacity.”

Over 130 participants representing 50 nationalities began working on a framework for transcending national carrying capacity through regional thinking by addressing key challenges facing the West Asia and North Africa.

In his opening remarks, on the morning of the three-day forum, HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal stressed the importance of carrying capacity in the context of human, natural and economic resources and called for a regional voice from WANA and its presence at the United Nations discussions regarding phase two of the millennium development goals.

Prince El Hassan, Chairman of the WANA Forum, said that historically the region has been known to be a route for spices, silk and pilgrimage and that it is time for it to be a Pan-Asian route of ideas and intra-regional policies.

Speaking at the second annual WANA forum, His Royal Highness said “We need to build bridges between haves and have nots. We need to focus on building human dignity as a response to the alienation of the majority of people in society.”

Prince Hassan called for the creation of a social cohesion fund in order to assist and facilitate the inclusion of all sectors of society in planning for the future. He stressed the need to activate consultation mode in all areas of regional cooperation within the third sphere; governments, the private sector and civil society.

HRH spoke of “human and social choke points within the nexus of TIM: Territoriality, Identity and Migration.” He said that the changing nature of war and conflict are impacting TIM in WANA in the opposite direction to what is happening in other parts of Asia. Therefore, Prince El Hassan stressed the need to learn from the experiences of the rest of Asia since WANA is part of Asia.

The opening session, attended by HRH Princess Rahma bint El Hassan, Ministers, diplomats and academics, included remarks by Nippon Foundation Chairman and WANA Forum International Senior Advisory Board member Yohei Sasakawa, and the director of the Library of Alexandria Ismail Serageldin.

* Petra Photo