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Mr. Abdul Salam Al Madani, Dr. Tariq Khoory, AEEDC speakers and honoured guests it is my pleasure to join you once again for the AEEDC meeting in Dubai. The AEEDC meeting is a great success again this year and its growth has truly been phenomenal over the last 13 years. Over 20,000 people attended in 2007 making it the best place to meet all the dentists in this part of the world. In recent years, the FDI World Dental Federation has also enjoyed very rapid growth and we now
represent over 150 national dental associations made up of over 1 million dentists around the globe. Only a few of the national dental associations in this region are not members of FDI and after this meeting, I hope some of them will join our federation. Of course, each time I visit Dubai, I have many wonderful memories of the very successful FDI Annual World Dental Congress which you helped us to host in 2007. It was our most successful congress ever with dentists in attendance from 144 countries.
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The AEEDC meeting provides an excellent networking opportunity to meet dentists and industry leaders from many countries. This year it is a great accomplishment to hold the GCC Oral Health Meeting with the AEEDC meeting. I was pleased to hear today that this important public health meeting will continue to be held during AEEDC in the future. Also, again this year, the Arab Asian Dental Alliance was held at AEEDC to promote collaboration among dentists of many countries. Naturally, the leaders of many of the member associations of the FDI are here this week and I appreciate being able to meet with them as well.
I would like to take just a few moments to thank some of the individuals who work so hard to make the AEEDC meeting a success each year.
His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and President of the Dubai Health Authority was here to officially open the meeting as usual. I appreciated the opportunity to meet His Highness once again and he expressed his strong support for the dental profession in Dubai. He spoke freely about his wish to have the best possible oral health care available to his people. I thank him for his vision “to provide health services on an international standard that help the Emirate of Dubai to attain a remarkable position on the world health map”.
I would like to thank His Excellency Qadi Saeed Al Murooshid, Director General of the Dubai Health Authority for his continuing support to both AEEDC and FDI, and also for recognizing that oral health is integral part of health.
Mr Abdul Salam Al Madani, President of Index Holding and Chairman of AEEDC has been a strong partner of FDI for over ten years and I thank him for his continuing support and for producing another excellent meeting this year. We are all glad that he was instrumental in attracting the FDI Annual World Dental Congress to Dubai in 2007.
To Dr Tariq Khoory, Honorary Chair and Dr Nasser Malik, Conference Chair, thank you for designing an excellent scientific program for us once again.
The FDI works in many areas of world health, and our central mission is to promote optimal oral health for all people. We are involved in a number of exciting new projects this year, and I will only mention one of them. The Global Caries Initiative is a five year plan to deal with the huge burden of oral disease in the world. Everyone here this evening knows how to prevent oral disease and yet dental decay is still the most common chronic non-communicable disease on the planet! We will hold a series of conferences, starting this July in Rio de Janeiro, to look for ways to demonstrate the costs of this disease, identify it earlier and to prevent it from causing such major health problems. Over five years we will examine different aspects of the disease and develop practical approaches for dentists to use in their practices. Perhaps one of the meetings may even be held here in Dubai.
I was very impressed by this meeting last year, and when I spoke to you at this dinner I suggested that the FDI should have a greater role in supporting your meeting. I was very happy to be able to sign that agreement tonight between AEEDC/Index and FDI to allow FDI to add value to this meeting and also use it as a platform for global health promotion. Together we now look forward to a bright future with new initiatives in the UAE and Region.
I can tell you that FDI will be a proud partner in future AEEDC meetings. We look forward to working with Mr. Al Madani and his very talented team. Working together, we achieved great results at the Annual World Dental Congress in 2007 and I am sure we will accomplish even more in the future!
Thank you for your kind hospitality in Dubai and thank you for your attention this evening. I wish you every success with AEEDC 2009!
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