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Intergovernmental Meeting to Review the Conference Structure of the Commission, including its thematic priorities and its subsidiary structure
26-28 March 2002
Bangkok

Opening Statement
by Mr Kim Hak-Su
Executive Secretary of ESCAP

Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me much pleasure to welcome you all to this Intergovernmental Meeting to Review the Conference Structure of the Commission, including its thematic priorities and its subsidiary structure.

This Meeting is being convened in response to Commission resolution 53/1 on "Restructuring the conference structure of the Commission".  You will recall that under the terms of that resolution, a review of the conference structure of the Commission, including its thematic priorities and its subsidiary structure, is expected to be carried out no later than at the fifty-eighth session of the Commission.  As you are aware, the fifty-eighth session is scheduled to be held in Bangkok from 16 to 22 May this year.

Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

Since assuming office as Executive Secretary of ESCAP in July 2000, it has been my constant preoccupation to sharpen the focus of ESCAP's work and provide a sense of direction to our activities so as to enable ESCAP to be more efficient and effective in the delivery of our services to the member states.

It is important to note that the reform efforts underway -- I prefer to call it "revitalization" or "restructuring" as the word "reform" sometimes carries a  negative connotation -- are not the beginning but rather a continuing process of effecting meaningful change.  It is also in keeping with the overall process of reform of the United Nations which continues to be an important plank in the Secretary-General's agenda during his second term.  I may point out in this connection that a project on "Strengthening the United Nations" has recently been initiated under the guidance of the Deputy Secretary-General, Madam Louise Fréchette, with the participation of all Departments and Offices, including ESCAP.

My reform agenda is essentially focused on "three tracks":

Without going into too much detail, I would say that I am generally pleased with the progress we have made on these three fronts.

In terms of the process of revitalization, I am sure you will agree with me that for any such process to succeed, consultations with all stakeholders are a pre-requisite.  In this case, extensive consultations have been held with the Advisory Committee of Permanent Representatives and Other Representatives Designated by Members of the Commission, or ACPR, on the revised programme and conference structures. 

I have also laid out my plans to the staff of ESCAP, our most important asset, through "Town Hall" type meetings and an interactive management dialogue.  Finally, the relevant Departments at United Nations Headquarters have been consulted throughout the process.  In fact, I invited the United Nations Office of Project Services, UNOPS, to conduct a "scoping mission" soon after I took up my present responsibilities.  Earlier this year, the Office of International Oversight Services dispatched a team to ESCAP.  I was happy to learn from the OIOS team that our restructuring efforts are on the right track.  We are also expecting a visit next month from a senior official from the Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts in the Department of Management.

In the context of partnership and networking, the Heads of Agency Meeting, comprising heads of UN bodies and specialized agencies based in Thailand, has been institutionalized on a quarterly basis.  Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme.  With UNDP, we have jointly established a Poverty Centre/Unit in my office to monitor progress in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.  We have also succeeded in establishing close working relationships with the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD.  ESCAP has continued its dialogue with the subregional organizations, including ASEAN, SAARC, ECO and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat through annual consultative meetings between the Executive Heads of these organizations and ESCAP.  The Seventh Consultative Meeting is scheduled to be hosted by the ASEAN secretariat in Bali, Indonesia, in September this year.

With regard to financial resource mobilization, I personally undertook two visits to Europe last year, covering the Nordic countries as well as Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.  I am pleased to receive their concurrence that ESCAP's priorities are in line with their own priorities.  Despite the general slowdown in ODA flows, I am hopeful that we will receive a measure of support from some of these non-traditional donors for our planned activities.

Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

Given the diversity in the region's development experience, variations in resource endowments, inevitable differences in the problems and perspectives of development faced by countries, as well as geo-political considerations, it would be virtually impossible for ESCAP, with its limited resources, to meet the development aspirations and needs of all the members.  That is why we have chosen to focus our programmes on the three main themes of poverty reduction, managing globalization, and emerging social issues -- which appear to have broad-based support among the membership.  At the same time, I have been emphasizing the need for ESCAP to engage itself increasingly in operational activities as a means of rendering more tangible assistance to the member states.  Towards this end, I have taken measures to train secretariat staff in the use of management tools including use of the logical framework to ensure and to measure the impact of ESCAP's projects and programme.  ESCAP will also carry out a logframe analysis of the three proposed thematic programmes and the eight proposed subprogrammes to ensure their relevance and compatibility.  To ensure that the work programme is membership owned and demand driven, ESCAP has undertaken needs assessment missions to Cambodia and Myanmar and missions are planned to other LDCs including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. These efforts are aimed at ensuring relevance of ESCAP's work programme to its membership and more effective use of the limited resources.

It is my fervent hope that this distinguished gathering will validate our perceptions in the secretariat on the importance of these three themes.  Your tasks during the next few days would clearly be both challenging and daunting.  My colleagues in the secretariat and I look forward with keen interest to benefiting from your views and ideas on the revised programme and conference structures and, specifically, on what you feel would be the appropriate modalities for carrying forward the work of ESCAP.

I wish you all success in this important endeavour.

Thank you.