Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, friends,

On behalf of our Board, I thank you for joining this Dialogue. We are here to learn from one another and not to listen to speeches, so I will keep my remarks brief! We are eager to understand your challenges so that we can help to convey them to regional development banks, the UN system, donors and others. Our members, I hope, will offer you some insight based on their wide-ranging experience and varied positions.

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As you know, the Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, which I chair, encourages governments, international organizations, NGO's and regional and global development banks, utilities and the private sector to work together to meet the Millennium Development Goal targets for water and sanitation. Those targets are to cut in half, by 2015, the proportion of people who lack safe water and basic sanitation.

When UNSGAB first met, members knew that the sanitation target was a formidable challenge. The main problem isn't primarily technical but social-sanitation is stigmatized. Excreta and its disposal are taboo subjects. Few want to talk about it. The sanitation crisis isn't a popular topic for politicians, dignitaries, or movie-stars and so it has not spurred the urgent, well-funded response needed to make the kind of progress necessary.

To begin overcoming this sanitation stigma, we worked with the UN to declare 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. The International Year opened a space for frank discussion about why disposing excreta safely is critical for development - that sanitation is a one of best ways to really accelerate health, social, and economic development. Communities around the world used the International Year of Sanitation as an advocacy tool to start discussions about this silent crisis. We were all pleased with the positive results of the International Year of Sanitation. But, here we are, just five years away from 2015, and we are still sadly off track in our efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goal sanitation target.

And so, our Board is now actively promoting a Sustainable Sanitation; five-year drive to 2015. The Five Year Drive picks up on, and continues, the spirit of the International Year for Sanitation. It will make the point that urgent action is needed now. It will build political will while also pressing to make sanitation a key part of the development agenda. The UN General Assembly is now poised to adopt a resolution recognizing the Five Year Drive and the crucial role of sanitation in our development efforts.

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As we begin translating this resolution into action on-the-ground, we are keen to hear about both the successes and failures that you have encountered in trying to extend basic sanitation services. And we are especially interested to explore the potential parliamentarian mechanisms for implementation and how the Sustainable Sanitation; five-year drive to 2015 might boost your efforts in the sanitation field.

Obviously, sanitation is linked with water issues, including transboundary issues. A good instrument for helping to mediate transboundary relations exists, but it has not yet entered into force: the UN-Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational uses of International Watercourses. UNSGAB urges ratification of the UN Watercourses Convention, because it will prevent water-related conflicts. So far, however, Asian countries have not sought ratification. We hope to talk with you about the barriers you see to potential support for this transboundary-management tool.

Development requires a vibrant economy, but our continued growth must be green. Green Growth is an idea whose time has come - it will be the central concept behind the Rio +20 Summit in 2012. The Republic of Korea is a leader in this area, with the creation of the internationally renowned Green Growth Institute. As parliamentarians, you decide national growth strategies, so we hope to talk about how to make water and sanitation part of your green growth strategies. And finally, we also seek your views on how decentralizing the policy structure might impact the implementation of local water and sanitation services.

Friends and colleagues, I would now like to thank again the Republic of Korea for their hospitality and for hosting our Board here in Seoul. I look forward to an illuminating discussion and will now offer the floor to my esteemed colleague, HE Yoon-Sun CHO.