 Thank you very much. First, for inviting me to be, to officiate this International Harm Reduction Conference. And first, on behalf of the Malaysian Government, a warm welcome to all of you, particularly those who have come from overseas and for having chosen Malaysia as a site of this year's international conference. I think that's an endorsement of our capacity to organize conferences of this. Thank you very much. And maybe I'd remind you that you're probably in the most active part of Kuala Lumpur, part of Kuala Lumpur, which never sleeps at night. It might sleep in the daytime to a certain extent. So after your conference, you'll have a lot of time to actually see the life of this area. With those words, young Burbagian, Dr. Rajat Karim, President Malaysian AIDS Council, my colleague in the ministry, Dr. Lokman Hakim bin Sulayman, the Deputy Director General of Public Health. He's the Deputy Director General of the Ministry by his overall in-charge of public health. Mr. John Peter Kuhl, Chair of the Harm Reduction International, Dr. Rick Lyons, Executive Director of the Harm Reduction International, and Burbagia Professor Dr. Adiba Kamarulzaman, Chairman of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation, and Mr. Burbagia, Dr. Suhaim Indivabhullah, Director General of the National Anti-Drug Agency. He's from the other component of drug control in this country, which is the Ministry of Home Affairs. So drug control in Malaysia is an interaction of collaborative work between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Home Affairs. We take care of all the nice things. They take care of all the not-so-nice things. So collectively, we work together to make sure that we are free, free of drug control. And I think his presence here is very important because listening to it, that will also help them see how they can modify the programs which are now under the anti-drug agency. For over three decades, now governments, medical practitioners, scientists, policymakers, public health experts, donors and communities from all across the globe have been fighting tirelessly to reverse the HIV-AIDS epidemic. The global solidarity and the AIDS response has been notably encouraging in the past decade. This combined with the emergence of powerful new tools for the prevention of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths as well as the commitment to scale them up has generated extraordinary health gains on a population level. Globally, since the year 2000, new HIV infections have declined by 35 percent. There has also been a 42 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths since 2004. In spite of these successes, challenges remain. Over 2 million new HIV infections were reported last year, with 5,600 new infections occurring daily. In the same year, a total of 1.2 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses. These figures show that HIV is very much a growing global epidemic, the burden of which falls disproportionately on low to middle-income countries and key populations with limited access to HIV services and behavior changes, interventions such as harm reduction. Harm reduction, which is an approach to tackle HIV and other drug-related harms in countries where the burden of the epidemic is borne by people who inject drugs, has been proven to be effective. In fact, I'm speaking from experience that it works because such is the case in Malaysia, as well as in other 90 countries in which the harm reduction strategy has been implemented. Malaysia initiated the harm reduction program in 2006 with the approval of the Malaysian Cabinet, which is the highest decision-making authority in this country. Set against the backdrop of an escalating HIV crisis among people who inject drugs, which at its peak accounted for more than 70% of new infections, we knew we had to take a bolder measure to address the alarming situation. We also knew that harm reduction was the best option that we had. It has been almost a decade since the implementation of harm reduction. Looking back, our needle and syringe exchange program has benefited over 85,693 people who inject drugs, while our drug substitution therapy, which is the methadone maintenance therapy, has served up to 74,816 clients. The proportion of notified new HIV infections due to injecting drug use has shown significant reduction from 74% in 2002 to 19.3% in 2014. That, I think, is a phenomenal success. And the overall new HIV in the country has consequently declined by 49% since 2002. A reason study has also shown that the harm reduction strategy has averted an estimated 12,650,000 HIV infections on people who inject drugs in Malaysia in the past decade. Initiating and sustaining harm reduction is easier said than done. Again, this, I say, from our experience, the leadership at the top most level is very important. In our case, it was the cabinet which is chaired by the Prime Minister himself who made it possible for us to expand the program even further and guarantee the unwavering commitments of various agencies, government and non-government alike in terms of its rollout and financing. Moving forward, there is a need to establish a clear set of updated policies on harm reduction programs, as well as to monitor it at all levels in the hope of enhancing its sustainability. Harm reduction program is not a one-man show. In addition to the active and meaningful participation of government and non-government entities, I would like to acknowledge and highlight the crucial role of the civil society led by the Malaysian AIDS Council together with its partner organizations nationwide in complimenting the government's efforts towards the goals of the AIDS response. I think they deserve a special clap. Without their unwavering commitment and support, the government alone working in unison could not have achieved this remarkable success. So I thank you very much for the NGOs under the Leadership Emulation AIDS Council who have made it possible. This partnership model has brought about maximum utilization of existing resources, minimal duplication of efforts and direct positive health outcomes. As the world works aggressively towards ending AIDS by 2030, harm reduction remains relevant more than ever before and must be further strengthened. Malaysia certainly is no exception, has in fact begun mapping out our commitment in the next phase of the AIDS response. Development of the national strategic plan on ending AIDS that is 2016 to 2030, that is for the next 15 years, is currently underway and is set to be completed by the end of the year. Thus far the Ministry of Health, Malaysia has formed technical working groups consisting of representatives from a wide spectrum of stakeholders including the civil society and we have conducted two workshops so far to formulate this important blueprint with a loop to adopt and introduce innovations that will take us to the end of AIDS. Just now while sitting there, Dr. Lokman was telling me that he has over the last two days had requests from people who have used drugs to have a voice in being able to articulate their concerns so that could be taken as part and parcel of the program which we are going to develop for the next 15 years. I assure you that we will definitely provide that platform in which the views of all people including those affected, drug users, stakeholders and the government and civil society will be taken into consideration as we outline the program for the next 15 years. Our commitment towards the ending AIDS is also reflected in our domestic AIDS spending and last year Malaysia spent over 196 million ringgit on its national AIDS response an increase of 5% compared to the previous year. Of this 94% or 185 million was contributed by domestic public funds while the rest of the contribution came from international donors and other sources. This is very important. There has to be a commitment from the government to fund such ventures and to date we are very, very lucky that the government has been able to take on the role as the main funder for all AIDS related activities in this country including the provision of drugs for those affected. So this has made it possible for those who have this problem to be treated and the mechanisms to put forward. So although NGOs work with us, it is the government which funds the NGOs to work. So it is this collaborative arrangement which is made and contributed to the success which I mentioned before and that is the direction in which we will tend to go for the next year, few years and of course we expect there will be an increase in domestic AIDS spending in the years to come. We will continue to strengthen our leadership in this and we will build up upon the progress that are made so far to make sure that we can reach this target of getting rid of AIDS by 2030. I believe many of you are able to relate to a harm reduction experience which we hope will inspire your work. We also hope that in the next three days you will utilize this opportunity to learn from other key players in our country and regions harm reduction sector with a view to enhance the progress and sustainability in your individual settings which might be different for ours but end of the day the aim is important and the results is important. The root could be slightly different according to each country. So on that note ladies and gentlemen once again I thank the organizers having called me and invited me to be in this very useful conference and I am sure the deliberations which you are going to do for the next few days will not only benefit those international participants from all over the world but particularly so will benefit Malaysian participants who are here which I see have come from the various sector. I see representatives of civil society, see representatives of the government, see representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs and I am sure the collective experience and knowledge which they are going to gain through the next three days will further enrich them the way we are going to approach this whole problem. With those words I thank you very much and wish you a very fruitful conference. Thank you.