2. Mr G. Soós, Secretary of State for Agriculture, welcomed the participants on behalf of the Hungarian Government. He then underlined the continuous increasing output of the Hungarian agricultural production resulting in an improvement of the food supply to the population and a promotion of exportations. In this trend to increasing protein availabilities, inland fisheries are playing an important role. Fish cultivated in farms covering 24 000 ha contributes to the two-thirds of Hungarian consumption while there are prospects to increase the national production in lakes and rivers. Hungary has developed new technologies for the breeding of fish and is applying them in a number of research centres and fish farms throughout Hungary. The results of this work are adaptable to other countries, particularly developing ones. This is one of the reasons, the Secretary of State concluded, why this session of EIFAC - which Hungary joined in 1968 - can be considered as a milestone for mutual work of EIFAC member States in the field of inland fisheries development.
3. Dr A. Lindquist, on behalf of the Director-General and the Officer-in-Charge, Fisheries Department, of FAO, thanked the Government of Hungary for hosting the session. He underlined the achievements of the host country in the field of inland fisheries and in the training of fisheries researchers from developing countries, in particular through the association of the Szárvas Fisheries Research Institute with FAO and UNDP. Dr Lindquist then briefly reviewed the major activities of EIFAC during the intersessional period, concluding by paying tribute to the dynamism of the Commission which serves as a model to sister commissions established by FAO in other regions of the world.
4. Prof. Dr K. Tiews, Chairman of EIFAC, also welcomed the participants. He expressed his gratitude to the Government of Hungary for its kind invitation. He stressed the accomplishments of this country in the development of new technologies in aquaculture and its active role in disseminating its experience not only within the EIFAC region but also to developing countries. The Chairman welcomed Romania - the European country with the largest inland fishery - as the twenty-fifth Member of EIFAC. He then proceeded to a detailed review on the one hand of the positive activities carried out to implement the recommendations of the eleventh session, pointing out in particular the numerous publications which were issued since 1980, and on the other hand the difficulties which were encountered in some sectors (see Appendix D). He concluded his remarks by thanking those people who had taken the care of preparing reports and documents for the session and the Symposium and those, in particular the Hungarian Organizing Committee and the EIFAC Secretariat, who had made possible the organization and holding of the session.
