Toespraak van minister Schultz van Haegen bij het seminar ‘Developing Myanmar waters sustainably: from Vision to Implementation’.

Toespraak | 04-06-2014

Your Excellencies,
ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great privilege to be in your wonderful country once again.
I am truly happy to be back so soon after my visit last year.

That visit was a particular honour for me, because it was the first official visit to Myanmar by a Dutch government official.
It marked a new beginning, almost four hundred years after our countries first enjoyed flourishing trade relations.

At the time, our Dutch ancestors looked at your country’s natural beauty in wonder.
‘It was indeed a blessed land,’ a Dutch sailor wrote.
Some Dutchmen liked it so much that they stayed here for decades.
A trader called Joris van Coulster called it home for as long as 36 years.
He left us a book filled with beautiful stories of his life in your country, its culture and its natural beauty.

What is remarkable about his stories is how much they talk about water-related issues.
Maybe because those issues were so familiar to them.
They speak of droughts and floods.
Of famine due to failed rice harvests.
And of the difficulties of navigating shallow rivers.

You can read between the lines how hard life could be for all who lived here.
But you can also see the great respect with which the Dutch traders looked upon the resilience of your ancestors,
both in trading and in living with water.

Of course a lot has changed in almost four centuries.
But, as a saying goes: the more the world changes, the more it stays the same.

Indeed, we still live on the same planet.
And water still presents both our countries with the same challenges and opportunities.
Water has even made us renew our age-old friendship.

And just like then, we look at your country in wonder.

We are impressed by your openness and the knowledge and expertise you have built up over the years.

So there’s every reason to deepen our friendship.
Especially since we share the same goals:
We want our peoples to live safely with water.
We want the water to work for us and not against us,
so we can improve the quality of our agriculture and our drinking water,
and use our rivers as navigable waterways.

In all of these fields, we have made good progress over the past year.
Together, we are working on Integrated Water Resources Management.
Together, we are expanding our knowledge on all water-related issues.
Like the adoption of a brand new policy document by your National Water Resources Committee.
And together, we’re strengthening the economic positions of both our countries.

But of course there’s still a lot of work to do.
As in every process, there are important practical issues to tackle along the way.
Those issues are on today’s agenda.

This morning, we will look at financial questions.
This is important, since our cooperation involves a number of international organisations and private companies.
It is important also because managing the future also requires feasible business for all parties involved.

The new Dutch Delta Programme involves crucial choices on financing as well.
And these processes can involve a lot of discussion.

But in the meantime we have developed valuable experience in public-private partnerships.

For example in giving contractors more responsibility for the design, financing, construction or maintenance of a specific project.

But also by involving citizens.
Tough questions sometimes need difficult decisions: who pays for services rendered and what is the role of the customer?

The way we are always looking for ways to make our governments work more efficiently and to make our companies more profitable.

In the afternoon, we will look at our joint study on Integrated Water Resources Management.

This may very well be the most comprehensive and important part of our relationship.
The study can fundamentally improve your eternal relationship with water.
Especially since it helps us to define clear perspectives on the future of Myanmar.

Of course we cannot know what the future will bring.
But we can explore possibilities, so that we are prepared.
Together, our experts have looked at three perspectives,
ranging from slower to fast economic growth.
Today, we will look into them and their consequences.
I look forward to a fruitful conversation.

But when we discuss all this, I urge you all to bear two words in mind.
The first word is prevention.
The second is governance.

First, prevention is vital because we know that there is no such thing as total safety.
There will always be risks.
But prevention means we can both save lives and manage our economy in the best possible way.
So we are ready when disaster strikes.
So we can react quickly and cope in the best possible way.
And we can rebuild as soon as possible.

But proper prevention requires adequate governance as well.
Water is simply too important an issue to tackle with a fragmented approach.
Water does not care about boundaries between townships, ministries or political lines.
There’s only one way to tackle any water-related issue, and that is together.

Only with an integrated approach can we make water management as good as it can be.
That is why I’m happy that our cooperation involves many different parties on both sides.
And that we are engaging young professionals as well.
This way we ensure that future generations will continue our work.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Our Dutch ancestors called your country a blessed land.

And apparently, the respect was mutual.
In 1641, the King of Pegu wrote a letter to his Dutch trading counterparts.
He wrote that a close friendship existed between them.
‘My feelings and affections for you are very profound,’ he said.

Today, I would like to echo these words.
Our close cooperation proves that our friendship is closer than ever.
And we seek to make it as mutually profitable as it was then.

So let us continue in this fashion.
Let us make our ancestors proud,
Let us make our nations flourish,
and keep our people safe.

In that spirit, I gladly invite you, your Excellency, and your fellow ministers, to Rotterdam,
to attend the International Conference on Deltas in Times of Climate Change, this September.

I thank you for making us feel welcome in Myanmar.
And I wish you a rewarding and successful day.

Thank you.