AS 47 COUNTRIES MEET FOR ESCAP COMMISSION SESSION, COLLECTIVE ACTION URGED TO SUSTAIN SIGNS OF RECOVERY
Press Release
REC/39
AS 47 COUNTRIES MEET FOR ESCAP COMMISSION SESSION, COLLECTIVE ACTION URGED TO SUSTAIN SIGNS OF RECOVERY
19990422 BANGKOK, 22 April (UN Information Service) -- An urgent call for collective action to sustain economic recovery from the financial crisis that has gripped the region for nearly two years was made today in Bangkok by Adrianus Mooy, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).The Executive Secretary was speaking at the fifty-fifth Commission session of ESCAP, which opened today with the Senior Officials' Meeting segment at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The ESCAP is the largest of the five regional commissions of the United Nations, with 60 member and associate member countries.
"There are some hopeful signs of recovery, including in several of the hardest hit countries", the Executive Secretary told senior officials from 47 Asia-Pacific countries in his opening statement.
Senior officials faced a crucial three-day agenda to find the means and policy options to sustain the recovery process, while at the same time being mindful of the weaker segments of society.
The three-day meeting of senior officials is in preparation for the Ministerial-level meeting on Monday, 26 April. Over 20 Ministers from Asia-Pacific countries are expected to attend the three-day (26 to 28 April) meeting which will culminate in the adoption of a report containing a plan of action and resolutions.
The main theme for this year's policy debate is: "Asia and the Pacific into the Twenty-first Century: Information Technology, Globalization, Economic Security and Development". The theme topic was discussed during ESCAP's 1999 Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific .
In 1997, the worldwide market for information and communication technology was $1.8 trillion, or 6 per cent of the world gross domestic product (GDP) and growing. Information and communication technology investment in the ESCAP region grew by 15 per cent a year during 1992-1997. Just the Internet economy alone is expected to reach $500 billion by 2002, the Survey said.
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Delegates will debate the development and application of information technology, the constraints on its application and the opportunities it creates in the areas of trade, investment patterns and financial flows. They will also consider an analysis of the effects of information technology on the volatility of selected important economic indications and on country-level economic issues such as output levels, employment size and structure, and food security.
Among topics discussed today were emerging issues and developments at the regional level on regional economic cooperation; environment and natural resources development; and socio-economic measures to alleviate poverty in rural and urban areas.
The delegates debated policy to strengthen intra-regional trade and investment flows and take advantage of new opportunities in the aftermath of the crisis. The four areas that have the potential for reviving intra- regional trade flows are liberalization of trade in services, commodity price risk management, trade facilitation and Internet commerce, and trade and investment information networking.
The delegates noted that the current crisis has revealed fundamental weaknesses in the economies and urged appropriate policy responses to achieve structural changes not only in the financial sector, but also in industrial and technological sectors, in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises.
In the area of environment and natural resources development, the delegates urged the secretariat to facilitate cooperation among subregional environmental programmes to promote exchange of information on best practices and national experiences in pollution control, environmental management and the transfer of environmentally sound technology.
Continued concerted efforts to assist developing countries to enhance their capability in disaster prevention, preparedness and rehabilitation in reducing the damage caused by natural and man-made disasters, was also another subject discussed. Thirty out of the 40 worst global catastrophes in terms of fatalities (with over a million deaths) occurred in the ESCAP region between 1990 and 1997.
The contribution to disaster mitigation being made by the integrated use of space-technology applications, such as satellite communications, satellite meteorology and Earth observation were emphasized.
The senior officials will continue their debate and discussion tomorrow on socio-economic measures to alleviate poverty in rural and urban areas; transport, communications, tourism and infrastructure development; statistics and least developed, landlocked and island developing countries, among other things.
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