NEW SOCIAL AGENDA REQUIRED TO COMBAT SOCIAL CRISIS, SAYS THAILAND'S PRIME MINISTER AT REGIONAL MEETING ON EAST ASIA ECONOMIC CRISIS
Press Release
REC/31
NEW SOCIAL AGENDA REQUIRED TO COMBAT SOCIAL CRISIS, SAYS THAILAND'S PRIME MINISTER AT REGIONAL MEETING ON EAST ASIA ECONOMIC CRISIS
19990121 BANGKOK, 21 January (United Nations Information Service) -- A new social agenda, with the participation of the people, is required to overcome the social problems created by the ongoing East Asian economic crisis, according to Thailand's Prime Minister, Chuan Leekpai, in his opening address to the Regional Meeting on Social Issues Arising from the East Asian Economic Crisis and Policy Implications for the Future.The Thai Prime Minister cited growing unemployment, rising costs of health care and growing numbers of school drop-outs as the most serious social consequences of the economic crisis which began in mid-1997. "We need a stronger partnership between public and private sector, non-governmental organizations and civil society to overcome the crisis", he said.
The two-day meeting is being organized by the World Bank and hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The meeting is the first step in a World Bank plan to initiate concerted action to keep social policy issues at the forefront of attention in East Asia.
According to Mr. Chuan, during the past year the level of unemployment in Thailand had doubled due to a worsening situation in the country's corporate sector leading to massive retrenchment of workers. The number of students dropping out of schools had also increased, while financial constraints were affecting research and development efforts. Mr. Chuan said these would have negative consequences for the development of human resources in Thailand.
Among the measures taken by the Thai Government to mitigate the social impact of the economic crisis, Mr. Chuan said, were public spending to create new employment opportunities and the allocation of adequate resources to the health and education sectors.
In his welcoming remarks, at the inaugural session of the World Bank regional meeting, the Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Adrianus Mooy, called for the introduction of an effective system of unemployment insurance. He referred to studies that suggest the feasibility of such schemes with "a modest pay-roll tax on the employers and employees".
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The ESCAP Executive Secretary said that Governments bear the primary responsibility to ensure that the crisis does not trigger off a vicious cycle of falling income and deteriorating social conditions. Despite the understandable pressure on government expenditure, Mr. Mooy pointed out that budgetary allocations for social services should be preserved and even augmented. He also called for governments to properly target measures for the creation of employment through public works, cash transfer, free or subsidized provision of essential goods and services including food and expanded credit facilities. Developing the capacity of social institutions and strengthening of information bases to monitor the social impact of the crisis are also needed.
Finally, Mr. Mooy pointed out that governments have to seriously review their development strategies in order to minimize vulnerability to a crisis in the future. An issue of particular relevance in this context, Mr. Mooy said, is the extent of reliance on external capital to finance domestic investment and more specifically, the speed and sequence of capital account liberalization.
Addressing delegates to the regional meeting, the World Bank's Vice- President, East Asia and Pacific Region, Jean-Michel Severino said that though some improvements can be expected in economic growth this year, all over Asia, there would also be further deterioration of the social situation. "Unemployment", he said, "will probably increase unless active social and structural policies are developed to mitigate the impact of unavoidable corporate restructuring and the further decline in revenues of many groups in the affected countries."
"It is critical that social suffering is alleviated not only for human reasons, but also for the sake of a rapid micro and macro economic recovery", Mr. Severino said. The World Bank was observing anxiously whether social unrest will jeopardize structural reforms which were necessary for economic recovery. He pointed out that the agenda for social recovery in the region was daunting and the task so large that it cannot be achieved by anybody in isolation. Neither the government nor the civil society organizations can meet the challenge without dialogue among all the actors, or without international support. "Partnership is the key to success with lucidity, pragmatism and determination", Mr. Severino stressed.
The Regional Meeting is being attended by high-level representatives from governments throughout East Asia, representatives of international funding agencies, United Nations organizations and specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations. Among the objectives of the Meeting are facilitation of a dialogue among various constituents within the international community about what is happening in the affected countries, short-term responses to the urgent problems that arise and the longer-term policy implications of these issues.
For further information: The World Bank Group: Social Crisis in East Asia website: http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/eacrisis/meeting/index.htm
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