The Asian Pacific Dialogue

About the Conference

The Asia Pacific Family Dialogue was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 11-13, 2004. The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development through its agency The National Population and Family Development Board jointly organized the Dialogue together with The World Family Policy Center based in Utah, United States of America.

Seventy substantive papers representing nineteen countries examined virtually every nuance of modern family life. The APFD identified not only what is known about marriage and family life, but what is not known and made concrete proposals for positive action in the development and implementation of family policy (as well as the completion of needed future research). Topics of particular interest included the social role of marriage, development needs of children, the impact of media on family life, governmental policy and the family (both economic and social), the family and human dignity, family and spiritual values, historical and global perspective on the family.

The Organizing Committee believes that in order to promote social stability and sound social development, societies around the world should encourage and strengthen high quality marriage, respect for life, parental involvement with children and the role of society.

All together there were 72 speakers, 47 international and 25 Malaysian speakers. Twenty-one participating countries, in terms of participants and speakers, and 733 participants attended the conference.