Opening of the World Engineering Forum 2012

Ljubljana, 18.9.2012  |  press release

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, attended the opening of the World Engineering Forum 2012 entitled “Sustainable Construction for People”. In his opening address he recalled the longstanding efforts of the international community to develop the concept of sustainable development.

Intergovernmental cooperation in this area has proved to have its limits, therefore today, more than ever, we are aware that the business sector, civil society and a variety of other initiatives must also participate in these efforts.

President Türk emphasised in particular that new development paradigms that are needed must be based on scientific grounds, sophisticated and imaginative engineering, business acumen and political energy coming from a mobilised civil society and from political actors.

“We need to reignite the scientific optimism which has driven the development of the world in the past two centuries. We have to support sophisticated and imaginative engineering, which will come not as a result of governmental initiatives but from human genius, which is embedded in engineers, people of knowledge and skills. And this is why your meeting is so important,” said President Türk.

He added that the meeting was also important for Slovenia because we are facing a fundamental transformation in our construction industry. In the past, the construction industry was mainly based on large infrastructural projects and large building projects, while in the future energy-efficient construction and innovative use of construction materials will become increasingly important.