Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour to be your host this evening and welcoming you the opening of this exhibition, portraying 50 years of Norwegian development co-operation. What started in 1952 with a fisheries project in India, is now a well established network with activities in many countries, in many sectors, and together with many partners in development.

Today, Norway is one of the world’s major donors, not only in percentage of GNP, but also in real terms. These 50 years of development co-operation have produced real results, for real people. We have helped provide education for children, healthcare for mothers, clean water for villages, infrastructure to promote development, we have supported initiatives for democracy, human rights and good governance. Through our development efforts, millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Nobody knows how many children’s lives have been saved. A lot has been achieved!

But not everything we did was a great success. Development co-operation, in many ways, is trying to achieve the impossible. When you work with - and among the least privileged, among the poorest of the poor in the least developed societies, there are limits as to what can be done. It is not like investing in the stockmarket and expecting quick return. Sometimes the results are not so obvious. Sometimes it takes time. We may have to wait. But we know that they are there. And we know that without our commitment there would have been less hope and more despair. The world would have been a little bit colder, a little bit darker. And for people – that makes a huge difference.

Norwegian development co-operation is more extensive, better and more efficient than ever before. Next week we will build on what we have learnt and present our new Action plan to eradicate poverty. At a symposium on Monday March 4, attended by many scholars including the Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, Dr. Amartya Sen.

We are also planning a wide range of events around the country throughout this year under the slogan "50 years in the struggle for the world’s poor". We hope to engage broad sections of the Norwegian civil society in the debate on strategies for development co-operation.

The exhibition here today will be part of it. It is a result of a joint effort between North and South. The Norwegian Company Sørvis Communications, based in the small southern town of Risør, has had the task of developing the exhibition. Sørvis has involved people from the South in the project, deployed under the new Norwegian Volunteers Scheme, Fredskorpset, or the Peace Corps, to undertake the actual work. We now have volunteers in Norway from our partner countries. Rezaur Rahman from Bangladesh has been the key person behind this. Reza is a graphic designer and has been with Sørvis since July 2001. I have been informed that Reza’s artistic vision is to change the image of Bangladesh from a floodridden country to one of opportunity.

I would also like to commend Mwanzo L.Millinga from Tanzania for his contribution as the photo editor of the exhibition. Asante sana kwa kazi yako! Ninaipenda sana!

I would like to thank all the staff of Sørvis involved for the excellent work they have done. This also shows the value of the new Volunteers’ concept – of sending youth from developing countries to Norway and Norwegian youth the other way. So a Norwegian is now doing Reza’s job in Bangladesh.

I am very pleased to present an exhibition which is a true reflection of partnership. Of the new way we conduct our business in Norwegian development co-operation. It is with pride and great pleasure that I declare this exhibition for opened.

There have been several Norwegian ministers of development co-operation over the years, the first was appointed in 1983. I would like to pay my respects to the work done by my predecessors, of which four are present here tonight (Reidun Brusletten, Kirsti Kolle Grøndal, Grethe Faremo og Ann Kristin Sydnes). I would like them to come forward and receive a small token of appreciation for the important role that they have played in the history of Norwegian development co-operation.

Thank you all for coming.

Thank you for your attention