UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore as Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Ms. Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), is the first woman to head ESCAP, which is the biggest of the UN's five regional commissions, both in terms of population served and area covered. “This is a great honour and an exciting opportunity," said Ms. Heyzer. "The Asia-Pacific region has tremendous development experiences and diversity and I will focus my efforts on bringing a more integrated approach to advancing its social, economic and environmental agenda." Reflecting on her time as Executive Director of UNIFEM, a position she has held since 1994, she added: "It has been an enormous privilege to lead such a dynamic organization and to be an integral part of advancing women's human rights and gender equality. It is by now widely recognized that development efforts will fail without empowering women, and I will bring my experience and expertise on gender issues to my position at ESCAP."

Over the past decade, Asia has witnessed rapid economic growth driven by strong external demand. During this period intraregional trade in Asia has also grown considerably. However, there is still room for Asian countries to strengthen their trade relationships, especially through the elimination of trade barriers within the region. The Expert Group Meeting on Promoting Trade between Asian Subregions, which will be held from 1 to 3 August, in Kunming, China, will examine current trends in trade between the subregions. In addition, participants will seek to increase public awareness, identify good practices and promote cooperation among the subregions. Participants will also seek to promote participation by small and medium-sized enterprises in global and regional supply chains. The meeting will be held by the Trade and Investment Division of ESCAP.

The proposed Trans-Asian energy system to be discussed at meeting in Seoul

With a growing appetite for energy and unstable global energy markets, the Asia-Pacific region clearly has a need for greater energy security. While the region has a large share of global energy resources, they are concentrated in a few countries, leaving other countries dependent on imports. Intraregional trade in energy is one way to address this problem. On August 2nd and 3rd, the Environment and Sustainable Development Division of ESCAP, will host a meeting in Seoul on the trans-Asian energy system. The event −Towards the Development of the Trans-Asian Energy System: Inception Meeting− will seek to facilitate energy trading within the region. More specifically the meeting will attempt to further conceptualize the Trans-Asian energy system and the modalities for its implementation.

A Workshop on Grassroots Innovation (GRI) will be held from 16 to 18 August 2007 in Ahmedabad, India. This workshop is being organized by the Asian and Pacific Centre for Technology Transfer (APCTT), a subsidiary of ESCAP, with the assistance and cooperation of the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI). During this three-day workshop, participants will be provided with in-depth knowledge on scouting, documentation and dissemination (SDD) of GRI along with the opportunity to share experiences and good practices. Participants will also make a one-day field visit to enable them to interact with grassroots innovators and experts involved in SDD. The workshop is part of the Promotion of Grassroots Innovation Project, funded by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the Government of India. The project aims to assist governments and other stakeholders to promote grassroots innovation.

Businesses run by rural women often suffer from a lack of information and resources needed to market their products. Women’s cooperatives allow women to share knowledge and experience on a wide range of matters, helping to make women’s enterprises more competitive. The Consultative Meeting for the Establishment of a Regional Knowledge Network of Rural Women Cooperatives, will be held by the Information, Communication and Space Technology Division of ESCAP in Bangkok from 23 to 24 August. The meeting will discuss ways to improve the exchange of information among women entrepreneurs by promoting knowledge networks among women’s agricultural cooperatives. To achieve this, the meeting will identify the training needs of women who wish to conduct e-business and discuss pilot implementation of a model e-business centre for women’s agricultural cooperatives.

Space technology could be a key element in the fight against avian influenza

The Information, Communication and Space Technology Division of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) will holding a meeting on the application of space technology as a means of controlling avian influenza. The meeting will be held from 1 to 3 August in Bangkok. The creation of an integrated information system to provide early warning on outbreaks of this contagious disease would be a major step forward. Space-based technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) could form a major component of such a system.