ADDRESS BY MARIA HELENA EVORA, DIRECTOR OF MACAO HISTORICAL ARCHIVES AND TREASURER OF EASTICA

Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of Macao Historical Archives and as Treasurer of EASTICA, I am very happy to extend our warm welcome to the participants of the Second General Conference of EASTICA.

EASTICA, the East Asian Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives, was founded by an Inaugural Conference held in Beijing in 1993 with the following purposes : to promote relations and collaboration among archives and archivists of this region, to define policies in archival field, as well as, to take all measures for the management, preservation and protection of the archival heritage of the region.

Sincere the Inaugural Conference of EASTICA in Beijing, in July 1993, the following activities have been carried out :

• the Executive Board Meeting of EASTICA was held in June 1994, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia;
• the Workshop on "Automation of Archives Management" was held from October 24^th to November 5^th, 1994, in Beijing, China;
• the membership dues for the years of 1994 and 1995 were collected;
• the first issue of "East Asian Archives" was edited and distributed;
• contacts between State Archives Bureau of China and Macao Historical Archives were kept for the organization of the Second General Conference of EASTICA and also the symposium on "Modernizing Archives Management" that will be concurrently held with the conference.

I believe that this conference will lead to a more active cooperation of archival work and a deeper friendship among archives and archivists.

I would like to thank the State Archives Bureau of China, the Under-Secretariat for Communication, Tourism and Culture and also Macao Cultural Institute for making possible the organization of the Second General Conference in Macao.

Thank you for your kind consideration.