ACL

Welcome to the ACL-IJCNLP 2009, the first joint conference sponsored by the ACL (Association for Computational Linguistics) and the AFNLP (Asian Federation of Natural Language Processing). The idea to have a joint conference for ACL and AFNLP was first discussed at ACL-05 (Ann Arbor, Michigan) among Martha Palmer (ACL President), Benjamin T'sou (AFNLP President), Jun'ichi Tsujii (AFNLP Vice President) and Keh-Yih Su (AFNLP Conference Coordinating Committee Chair, also the Secretary General). We are glad that the original idea has come true four years later, and even the affiliation relationship between these two organizations has been built up now.

In this joint conference, we have tried to mix the spirit from both ACL and AFNLP; and, Singapore, which itself has a mixture of diversified cultures from eastern and western regions, is certainly a wonderful place to see how different languages meet each other. We hope you will enjoy this big event held in this garden city, which is brought to you via the efforts from each member of the conference organization team.