ESCAP COMMEMORATES ITS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

Press Release
REC/1*

ESCAP COMMEMORATES ITS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

BANGKOK, 28 March (UN Information Service) -- The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) observed its fiftieth anniversary today focusing on the theme "50 Years of Achievement".

"As we look back on those early years, to a world recovering from the ravages of a devastating war, the advent of the Commission as an instrument to assist in the reconstruction of war-torn areas must surely have been a silver lining", said Adrianus Mooy, Executive Secretary of ESCAP.

The Commission was established on 28 March 1947 under the terms of Economic and Social Council resolution 37 (IV) as the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) to assist in post-war economic reconstruction. The name was changed in 1977 to ESCAP, reflecting both economic and social aspects of development and the geographic location of its members.

From an initial membership of 10 countries, ESCAP has grown to 60 member and associate member countries, representing some 60 per cent of the world's population, or 3.5 billion people. Its membership ranges from small Pacific island countries, such as Niue, to the most populous countries of the world, China and India. "As the unique intergovernmental forum covering the vast Asia-Pacific region, this Commission's efforts at forging a sense of regional identity have been most noteworthy. As we look ahead, I have every confidence that ESCAP's role in promoting regional cooperation in the economic and social fields will be further strengthened and reinforced", said the Executive Secretary at the Shanghai Symposium to Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of ESCAP, held from 18 to 20 March.

Also on that occasion, Johan B.P. Maramis, fourth Executive Secretary of the Commission (1973-1981), said "ESCAP evolved from a think tank to an

* The press releases of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) were formerly issued under the symbol ESCAP. They are now issued under consolidated symbol for all regional economic commissions -- REC.

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increasingly action-oriented organization, providing countries with economic and social development projects and programmes aimed at regional and subregional cooperation". The three-day Symposium, the first event of the wide range of activities ESCAP is organizing this year, was hosted by the Government of China, and held in Shanghai, the first headquarters of the Commission. It relocated to Bangkok in 1949, where it has remained ever since.

"In the past 10 years or more, the economy of Asian countries have enjoyed an annual average economic growth rate of 8.1 per cent, four times that of the developed countries in the same period. Asia, and East Asia in particular, has become one of the areas with the most dynamic and fastest growing economy in the world", said China's Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in his keynote address to the Symposium.

"Progress, however, remains uneven among the countries of the region", said Mr. Mooy. The least developed, land-locked and Pacific island economies, and the economies in transition, face specially difficult structural impediments. He added: "Poverty remains a major problem in the region. An estimated 700 to 800 million people still languish below the poverty line. There is an urgent need for upgrading human resources in the region through education and training with a view to raising productivity, which holds the key to success in an increasingly competitive world market."

Participants at the Symposium which included some of the most eminent thinkers in the region, unanimously agreed that ESCAP must continue to play a catalytic role in spreading the growth momentum more evenly. The ultimate challenge lies in bringing the region's poor into the mainstream, enabling everybody to achieve a better standard of life as envisaged in the Charter of the United Nations.

As the main economic and social development centre within the United Nations system in the Asian and Pacific region, ESCAP plays a multifaceted role as the only intergovernmental forum for the exchange of national economic and social development views and experiences. The Commission also acts as a regional body for policy-oriented socio-economic research and analysis, as well as an executing agency of technical assistance.

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