Your Highness the Emir
Your Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser
Excellencies
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
As-salaam-o-aleikum
What a pleasure it is to greet this wonderful audience, including so many friends, old and new, who have helped shape this programme, and who are so essential to its future.
I am especially pleased to salute their Highnesses, the Emir of Qatar and Sheikha Moza. We are honoured by your presence - and grateful for your inspiring example, as you embrace this country’s proud heritage, while also pointing it boldly to the future.
It is hard for me to believe that this Awards process is now a third of a century old! - and that it has involved some 3500 candidate projects and over 100 prize recipients. As we complete the 11th cycle, I am delighted to extend to all of our recipients my warmest congratulations!
The awarding of prizes is in the spotlight tonight - and deservedly so. But the prizes themselves are only the tip of a larger iceberg. The Awards programme also includes a wide array of seminars, exhibitions, lectures, publications and a highly decentralized selection process. This ceremony, in short, marks the culmination of a long and lively conversation.
Full Speech @ http://www.akdn.org/Content/1033
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