ESCAP Official Stresses Regional Cooperation Against Various ChallengesRegional cooperation has appeared to be more and more important for the common interests of Asia-Pacific countries which face a series of new external and internalchallenges, a U.N. official stressed Monday.Opening the Ministerial Segment of the 57th Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Session to be held in Bangkok from Monday to Wednesday, ESCAP chief Kim Hak-Su said "Under the present circumstance, we should do more to build on the growing impulse for regional cooperation in the economic and social fields." "An increasing unfavorable external environment, including the U.S. economic slowdown and the Japanese economy doldrums, is likely to reduce the projected growth rates for most countries in the region, " said Kim, executive-secretary of the ESCAP. To meet the goal of eliminating extreme poverty by the year 2015 as committed in the U.N. Millennium Summit last year, the ESCAP chief elaborated his plan to cut poor population in the Asia-Pacific region: transferring proven model practices to developing member states, strengthening the weakening position of developing countries in related international negotiations, and detecting other common social problems. Kim, who assumed his ESCAP office last July, expressed his willingness to adopt more approaches to restructure the organization, in order to preserve the claim of the "repository of Asia-Pacific thinking." Zhang Yesui, head of the Chinese government delegation and assistant to the Chinese foreign minister, told the meeting that due to the various conditions of respective countries in the region, the policy options on solving their social and economic problems should be open. "China will continue to strengthen cooperation with ESCAP and other fellow members as it did in the past, in order to jointly work for the prosperity and development of the region, " he said. Nearly one thousand participants from governments, U.N. agencies, governmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations attended the opening ceremony at the local U.N. conference center. During the three-day assembly, participants will discuss regional policy issues such as the balanced development of urban and rural areas and regions, which is the meeting theme, and the HIV problems. The meeting will adopt a resolution on its ending session Wednesday. The ESCAP is the largest inter-governmental socioeconomic forum in the Asia-Pacific region, grouping 52 members and 9 associate members. It holds annual assembly in March or April. |
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