Båb Bergvall, President of the WFAD Organizing Committee - Opening remarks
Your Majesty, Members of Royal Families and Ministers, Honorary Ambassadors and Guests, Prominent Speakers and Moderators, Distinguished Delegates
Welcome to Stockholm and the first World Forum Against Drugs. My name is Båb Bergvall, and I am president of the Organizing Committee.
Some years ago eleven Swedish organizations, all working to reduce drug abuse and stop drug trafficking, decided to jump off a cliff. We started to plan for the first World Forum Against Drugs ever.
One of our major goals was to reach out to non-governmental organizations on all continents and invite their members to a world conference where they could share experiences and talk about a vision of a drug free world.
Today we are more than 600 participants at this opening session, from more than 80 countries - an outcome much better than we ever hoped for.
This is of course a result of hard work, but we could never have done it without strong support and generous contributions from the Swedish government, the City Council of Stockholm, public authorities as well as numerous non-governmental organizations. We also thank the 20 Swedish private companies who decided to stand behind us and who as sponsors so generously support the conference.
We will now have three days together to listen to speeches, attend major sessions, take part in workshops and do a lot of networking in between. All of that will be very exciting for me and my fellow organizers. I am sure it will be equally exiting and interesting for all of you too.
Once again, welcome to Stockholm and the first World Forum Against Drugs!
Now it is my privilege to introduce our moderator for this opening session - a truly respected politician and former speaker in the Swedish Parliament, Mrs. Birgitta Dahl
Thank you
