Your Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum,

Crown Prince of the Emirates of Dubai, UAE Minister of Defense Excellencies the Ministers and Directors of Local Departments
Distinguished Guests

Ladies and gentlemen

Allow me your highness to start by welcoming our guests who came to Dubai to celebrate with us the World Habitat Day and to join us in the seminar, which is organized during this ceremony under the theme ” Safer Cities ” .

It is a great honor to celebrate the World Habitat Day for the first time in An Arab City, Dubai – United Arab Emirates. It is also a clear indication that this young country strives for peace, common good and welfare for itself and for the world at large. Dubai joins the international community in building the progress of humanity, in accordance with the wise policy of his Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan , the president of UAE and his brother H. H. Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum , Vice President of UAE prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai and their brothers the Supreme Council Members the rulers of the Emirates.

Ladies and gentlemen, By hosting this unique occasion, the Emirate of Dubai is expressing its deep commitment , along with the world community , to improve living environment. Dubai International Award For Best Practice was established according to the orders of H. H Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, The Vice President of UAE prime minister and Ruler of Dubai, during the Dubai International Conference which was held in 1995 .

Ladies and gentlemen, This Award was established to continue. It is presently registered officially with the United Nations and will be presented biennially .
The aim of the award is to motivate governmental and non-governmental organizations from all over the world to participate by submitting their nominations to the Award . The Award shall act as an incentive for the provision of better services and for the improvement of living environments of the population in cities and villages. Dubai International Award was inaugurated and presented for the first time during the II Habitat Conference which was held In Istanbul – Turkey in 1996, in the presence of H.E. the secretary general of the United Nations at that time Dr. Botrus Ghali. Recipients were 6 governmental and non-governmental organizations from all over the world.

Today we are celebrating for the second time the presentation of Dubai International Award. The recipients are 10 governmental and non- – governmental organizations from the fife continents. Submissions for the award were over 470 from seventy fife countries from all over the world.

It is our pleasure to offer our best congratulations to the winning Best Practices from China, Columbia, Egypt, India, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, Spain, Tanzania, and USA. They deserve our appreciation and recognition for the tangible impact, which their winning best practices will have on their communities in particular, and on the International community in general.

Your Highness, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, It is our pleasure to take this opportunity to express our thanks and gratitude to his excellency Kofi Anan the
Secretary General of the United Nations and all his assistants in the United nations , and we thank him particularly for accepting our invitation through his assistant Mr. /
Claus Toepfer who attends this ceremony with us today.

Thank you