His Excellency the Minister of health of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, honorable member of the corps diplomatic, Honorable SAA President, Honorable ICASA 2011 Chair and delegates, all due protocol observed.

I would like on behalf of the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and Pacific extend to ICASA 2011 Delegates the message of good will of people from Asia and Pacific to Ethiopians, as well as the Africa Continent as whole.

Dear Honorable delegates, allow me to express my excitement of visiting Ethiopia which helped my country South Korea during Korean War, 61 years ago. I am very grateful for that historical engagement that is still binding the two countries.

I have been invited by Michel Sidibe to attend this wonderful well organized ICASA 2011 conference. Let me inform you that I am impressed by the professionalism and number of the participant of this meeting, following the statistics, ICASA 2011 registered up to 7,000 delegates, this is very important, it shows the beginning of the ownership of the response in Africa. The International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICCAP) do witness the participation of 4,000 delegates; with a population of 8 million people living with HIV and AIDS.

We believe that we are fighting the same battle and we need to build and strengthening a very strong partnership between Africa and Asia in terms of research, capacity building and sharing of knowledge, so that we together can defeat this global epidemic that has caused so much havoc in our community.

I would like to commend the Society for AIDS in Africa and the Federal Government of Ethiopia for giving once again a dynamic punch to our common enemy: the HIV, by organizing this conference in this crucial time of 30 years of AIDS discovery.

We believe that the Global fund, UNAIDS and other partners involved in the struggle against this epidemic will not withdraw back now that we have tangible and palpable results. Together we shall surely overcome all odd.

Dear honorable delegates I hope that you enjoy this beautiful country and are going back to your various endeavor with good souvenir of Ethiopia and ever ready to fight to finish the AIDS in our community. I wish you safe return; let us keep hope alive...

Congratulations for this successful Conference: ICASA 2011