First Borneo Quality of Life Conference begins
KOTA KINABALU: The first International Borneo Quality of Life (BQOL) Conference organized by Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Sabah Health Department, started yesterday.
The four-day event is aimed at improving the quality of life and bringing people from diverse areas of interests, including academia, the arts, health, education, business, justice, politics, religion and the environment together
The conference will include workshops whereby participants from different backgrounds will work together to produce a set of resolutions to help improve the quality of life in the region.
Conference chair Dr Helen Lasimbang said Malaysia was successful in achieving the World Health Organization's Millennial Development Goals. The sustainable development goals came into effect in January 2016 and these were much more wide reaching.
These include goals related to poverty, health, education, the environment, work and social injustice to be achieved by 2030.
This conference hopes to create collaborations which will allow these goals to be met. Another aim of the conference is to consider how progress towards a better quality of life can be measured.
The current indicators of development, such as economic growth and death rates do not measure many things that people consider to be important.
The event was launched by Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Kamarlin Ombi.
Plenary lectures will be delivered by distinguished international speakers including world renowned experts on quality of life, Emeritus Professor Robert Cummins and Professor Liz Eckerman of Deakin University in Australia, Dr Hume Field and Dr Jonathan Epstein of Eco Health Alliance, and Professor Tan Sri Dzulkifli Razak, the first Malaysian president of the International Association of Universities.
Present on behalf of UMS was its assistant vice chancellor, Professor Dr Marcus Jopony.