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What’s
Ahead @ ESCAP |
| www.unescap.org |
May
2006 |
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Executive
Secretary to brief participants on promoting MDGs at Asia Media Summit
UNESCAP
Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su will attend the upcoming Asia
Media Summit, where he will participate in a panel discussion on the
role of broadcasters as advocates of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). The third annual Asia
Media Summit, to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 29-31 May,
will provide a unique opportunity for broadcasters in the region to
share their thoughts on information and broadcasting. Some 400 media
decision-makers, media professionals, scholars, and stakeholders of
news and programming from around the world are planning to attend.
The annual Summit is being organized by the Asia-Pacific
Institute for Broadcast Development in collaboration with
a host of partners, including UNESCAP. |
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 Asian
Highway: financing highway infrastructure and improving road safety
An
Expert
Group Meeting on the Development of the Asian Highway Network
will be held in Bangkok from 8-10 May to discuss regional experiences
and lessons in financing highway infrastructure and improving road
safety. UNESCAP’s
Transport and Tourism Division aims to provide an opportunity
for participants to share regional experiences and lessons in the
areas of financing development, maintenance and upgrading of highway
infrastructure including public private partnerships, and improving
road safety. The Meeting will also discuss a proposed draft declaration
on improving road safety in the Asia Pacific region to be considered
by the Ministerial Conference on Transport later this year. |
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 UN
Secretary-General Annan to present development award to Thai Monarch
During a visit to Thailand in May, United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (left) will present His
Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand with a special award for
his extraordinary contribution to human development during his sixty
years on the throne. Mr. Annan will bestow the UNDP
Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented to
individuals who have demonstrated outstanding commitment during their
lifetime to furthering the understanding and progress of human development
in a national, regional or global context. This is the first time
such a Lifetime Achievement Award is being given. |
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 Strategic
planning in statistics for Central Asian focus of meeting in BishkekThe
Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics calls for all low-income
countries to have a National Strategy for the Development of Statistics
(NSDS) by 2006. To this end the Partnership
in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21)
and UNESCAP’s
Statistics Division are co-organising a series of four sub-regional,
high-level forums on strategic planning for statistics for Asian countries,
funded by a UNDP-managed Japanese trust fund. The high-level
forum for Central Asian countries, to be held from 17-19 May
in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, aims to assess the current status of
strategic statistical planning in the sub-region; identify the successes
and constraints being experienced in implementing existing plans;
and consider solutions to those constraints and practical next steps.
UNESCAP and PARIS21 are collaborating with the Kyrgyz National Statistical
Committee, the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Interstate Statistical
Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States in organizing
the forum.
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 UNESCAP/WTO/ITC
meeting to nurture government-business dialogue
UNESCAP’s
Trade and Investment Division, the World
Trade Organization (WTO) and the International
Trade Centre (ITC) will hold a joint meeting to nurture the
government-business dialogue essential in supporting the business
sector to keep abreast of continuing WTO negotiations. The meeting,
to be held in Singapore from 4-5 May, will focus on the mechanism
needed to promote business concerns in trade negotiations by bringing
out the opportunities and challenges emanating from these negotiations.
The meeting is part of UNESCAP’s ongoing effort to play a major
role in assisting developing countries in the region to understand
and implement regional and multilateral trading and investment systems
in order to help them to participate more effectively in the global
economy. Pictured left is a high-level government-business dialogue
on development co-hosted by UNESCAP and ITC in Macau, China, prior
to WTO’s sixth ministerial meeting last year. |
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 Meeting
aims to develop electric power sector in North-East Asia
Eastern
and Western Europe have relied on oil and gas imports from Western
Siberia for more than two decades. The abundant energy resources of
the Russian Far East, however, have as yet to be developed for potential
energy trade with nearby industrialized or fast-growing North-East
Asian markets in China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,
Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. Senior
officials from most of these countries have been working together
under UNESCAP’s auspices since 2001, and adopted the Intergovernmental
Collaborative Mechanism on Energy
Cooperation in North-East Asia in 2005 to reap the benefits
of potential energy cooperation and trade. A working group on energy
planning and policy was established to develop a common understanding
on the current energy situation, so that each participating member
country could identify concrete areas for future energy cooperation
in the subregion. The group’s first meeting will be held in
Bangkok from 15-16 May to review the methodology and outline of country
reports to be prepared by each participating member country. The preliminary
results of the working group will be reported to a meeting of the
Senior Officials Committee, tentatively scheduled for November 2006.
The initiative is being organized by UNESCAP’s
Energy Resources Section. |
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Special
Observances and Meetings |
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The views expressed in this
publication do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies
of the United Nations. The information contained herein may be freely
reproduced. What’s Ahead at ESCAP is published monthly
by the United Nations Information Services Bangkok. Tel: +(66-2) 288-1861-66
• Fax: +(66-2) 288-1052 • E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org
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