INTRODUCTION
I bid you welcome and thank you for this opportunity to keynote this conference of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUPC).

Your focus on human resource development coincides with my aspirations for the Filipino people, especially our youth who constitute almost two-thirds of our population of 65 million.

Our shared vision called “Philippines 2000!!!” is founded on the concept of sustainable development. We seek and program economic and industrial development without sacrificing the environmental and ecological resources that should sustain us continuously and optimally.

Our natural resources are finite and must be conserved through sustainable development. Our economic resources are still basically inadequate.

But the boundless creativity and vitality of our human resources, if properly developed, can compensate significantly for the limits of our natural resources and the present inadequacy of our economic resources.
EDUCATIONAL DELIVERY SYSTEMS
This requires that our educational system’s program for the development of human resources be itself imaginative, innovative, effective and efficient.

Your conference focus on educational delivery systems, particularly satellite and telecommunications systems, computer technology, and audio-video transmission and projection is most timely.

Employed together, they make possible achievements that can be mind-boggling and seemingly unbelievable were it not for the fact that they are demonstrable and provable.
GOVERNING ACROSS SPACE
I know this for a fact. Since I assumed the presidency of my country, a major responsibility i have discharged has been that of enhancing my country’s economic, political, diplomatic and cultural relations with other nations and peoples.

This has required that I undertake a certain number of foreign trips a year. Were it not for these technologies, I would have found it difficult and even unthinkable to leave the Philippines that often. But we are doing it and the long-distance command and control work — for our country’s benefit.

I find that I am able to maintain virtually hands-on and follow-thru management of government — and to monitor national affairs — even while abroad on these missions.
OUR BELIEF IN EDUCATION
The Philippines, as you know, is an archipelago of more than 7,000 widely dispersed islands. Many of our people live in remote and isolated communities.

But physical remoteness and lack of easy access do not deter us from our determination to deliver quality and relevant education.

One of the fundamental tenets of Filipino life, which is part of the contract between our citizens and their government is our belief in education as a great equalizer of opportunity, and as the handmaiden of democracy in our society.

Thus, we believe in every citizen’s right to adequate, quality and relevant education as a means to self-improvement and liberation from penury.

We are resolved to meet this commitment. We realize, however, that conventional approaches to this problem may be prohibitively expensive for a country in our geographical and economic situation.
HARNESSING MODERN TECHNOLOGY
I cannot help observing that there is a certain justice to this process: that technology, itself the product of education, should now, again, be made to serve its master.

Using these technologies as educational delivery systems, we can bring the classroom to where the students are instead of having the students come to the classroom.

Thus, we enable the genuine dispersal of educational and economic opportunities. We give life to democracy where it has first to take root — in the minds and the imaginations of our citizens, to whom education will open a new world of knowledge and expectations.

I therefore ask all of you who are involved in this historic conference to devote your full attention to this subject.
A TRADITION OF SHARING
I would like to thank the visiting university presidents in this conference for sharing their knowledge and experience with us.

This selfless sharing is in the best traditions of human knowledge, as embodied in the idea of the university. Today, with the internet and such other means of sharing information, the university itself can no longer be confined to the concrete walls of the traditional campus.

This is what we would like to achieve with distance education: to create, as it were, colleges and universities without walls, whose learning horizons will be limited only by the human mind, and by the reach of technology.

The IAUP has done much to advance the cause of human resource development worldwide. In recognition of the value of your work — and the value of participating in it — I hereby direct Philippine state universities and colleges to continue to be active in and committed to the IAUP. I call upon their private counterparts to do the same.
CREATING APEC CENTERS
The Philippines, as you know, is an active participant and advocate of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). We participated in the two meetings of APEC heads of state and governments so far held in Seattle, USA and in Indonesia.

In particular, we introduced the idea of human resource development in the region through APEC centers in the educational systems in the various countries.

In the US, a consortium of 16 universities — including Yale and George Washington University — has established such APEC centers in their respective universities.

In the Philippines, we are in the process of operationalizing such a Center for Technology Transfer and Training for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). I broke ground for the center just one week ago at the UP Los Baños College of Agriculture. In fact, one of the Philippine host organizations in this conference is a leading player in our APEC program.

One reason why we are bullish about our “Philippines 2000!!!” vision is that the pacific basin or rim, as it is also called, is recognized as the growth center of the 21st century.

With two-thirds of the world’s population and with the highest rate of growth among global regions today, Asia-Pacific will be looked upon and depended on by the rest of the world for leadership and innovation.

For this region to meet the challenge such expectations pose, it has to ensure that its human resource base is equal to the challenge.

You have correctly identified human resource development as a top priority for the future. And you have identified the proper tools for developing the region’s human resource base.

The IAUP’s role as facilitator, coordinator, integrator and harmonizer is crucial.

Under your auspices, member universities could be organized into multi-country and multi-sectoral consortia. These groups could cooperate in undertaking distance education programs utilizing these powerful learning delivery modes.

IAUP could serve as a regional clearing house and coordination nucleus for non-traditional educational delivery systems.

The point is that IAUP would be an ideal catalyst for the effective development of the human resources of the Pacific Basin. And it could very effectively fulfill this role by being itself a juridical institution with a clear charter, base, staff and work program.

I therefore urge the IAUP to seriously examine this idea of institutionalization.
CLOSING
Again, and in closing, thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you. I have every reason for confidence in your success as an organization, and as a contributor to global development.

Every mind that you open is a fresh window of opportunity for humanity, for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

Thank you, mabuhay “IAUP 2000!!!”.