I am greatly delighted that the 80th ICOLD Annual Meeting and the 24th Congress will be held in Kyoto in June 2012. We heartily welcome you to the meeting and congress.

We are grateful from the bottom of our heart to many countries of the world for their sympathy and support in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake. I firmly believe that Japan will be able to overcome the difficulties with the support and cooperation of international community by solving problems with concerted efforts and gathered wisdom.

We successfully improved the safety level against flooding and secured water resources and thereby enhanced people’s living in the postwar high economic growth period by developing technologies for constructing and managing dams and for preserving the environment around the dam, and by constructing dams. In recent years, we have been developing technologies for using and functionally enhancing existing dams.
I believe introducing such advanced Japanese technologies for discussion will make contributions to the global sustainability through the improvement of the countermeasures against flooding, guarantee of the availability of water resources and development of hydraulic energy throughout the world.

 

The congress is scheduled to be held in Kyoto, an attractive tourist city where you may be able to fully enjoy traditional Japanese culture by visiting world heritage sites including Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) and Kiyomizudera temples. I hope you will have an opportunity for such enjoyment during your stay.

We are looking forward to seeing you on this occasion.

Takeshi Maeda
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism