Closing Remarks by Mr Kim Hak-Su Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP

(Wednesday, 25 April 2001)

Mr Chairman,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Representative,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

As the 57th session of the Commission draws to a close, may I first of all, express my deep appreciation to you, Mr Chairman, for the very skillful manner in which you have guided our deliberations.  My sincere thanks also go to all the Vice-Chairmen; the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the three Committees of the Whole, as well as Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the Working Group on Draft Resolutions for the very significant contributions they have made to the work of the Commission over the past few days.

I also wish to express my deep appreciation to the Royal Thai Government for its assistance towards the holding of this session.  As the host country of this Commission, Thailand has consistently provided its generous support to ESCAP, for which we are most grateful.  I should also like to express my deep appreciation to all the distinguished representatives for upholding the traditional spirit of harmony and consensus during this session.

Mr Chairman,

I  was  specially  encouraged  by  the  strong  support expressed by the  member  states  for  the reform efforts currently underway at ESCAP.  Those efforts are designed to make the Commission more responsive to the needs of its members and associate members.

I wish to assure the Commission that my staff and I will in the coming months pay close attention to reformulating our programmes and activities, as well as the conference structure, in preparation for the comprehensive review to be undertaken at the 58th session next year.

Mr Chairman,

Let me also reiterate that ESCAP will continue to press ahead in its search for new areas and avenues of cooperation, together with our development  partners,  for  the  benefit  of  the developing countries of this region - in particular the neediest among them.

My colleagues in the secretariat and I will exert our best efforts to implement in the most efficient manner possible the Commission's directives and recommendations as well as the resolutions adopted.  In that regard, a matter of priority importance for the secretariat in the coming months will be the preparations for holding the second Ministerial Conference on Infrastructure Development, to be held in Seoul in November this year.  We look forward to that important event and to the expert group meeting in preparation for the Ministerial Conference, to be held in Jakarta in June this year.

Mr Chairman,

Before concluding, I would appeal once again to the member states to enhance funding support to ESCAP and the three regional institutions operating under its auspices, namely, APCTT, CGPRT Centre and SIAP, to enable us to carry out our work in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

Mr Chairman,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Representatives,

I thank you all for your participation at this session and look forward to meeting you again at the Fifty-eighth session next year.

Thank you.