In early February, Mr. Shabaan M. Shabaan, UN Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, wrote to Mr. Huang Youyi, Vice President of FIT, informing the Congress Organizing Committee that Mr. Yohannes Mengesha, Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, will represent the United Nations at the FIT Congress and deliver a keynote speech.

Mr. Shabaan says: “ I wish you every success in your efforts to ensure fruitful exchanges between translation practitioners, conference services managers and other language professionals at this most important event in August.”

Mr. Yohannes Mengesha, a national of Ethiopia, was appointed as Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management on 26 April 2006. He joined the United Nations in 1976, and has held various posts at WFP, worked as Senior Adviser to the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, and served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary-General in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.

Up till now, the four keynote speakers of the FIT Congress are all settled. They are: Mr. Wu Jianmin, Former Chinese Ambassador to France and President of the International Exhibitions Bureau; Mr. Yohannes Mengesha, UN Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management; Mr. Karl-Johan Lönnroth, Director‑General, Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission; and Mr. Gu Yueguo, Research professor of linguistics at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.