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What’s
Ahead @ ESCAP |
| www.unescap.org |
March
2007 |
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UNESCAP
celebrates 60th anniversary with special commemorative event in Bangkok
UNESCAP will observe its 60th anniversary with a commemorative event scheduled for 28 March at the UN Conference Centre, Bangkok. Special guests include Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who will given the keynote address, and Thai Prime Minister H.E. General Surayud Chulanont. Noble laureate, economist Amartya Sen, will be given a special life time achievement award. The programme includes a specially commissioned dance performance which portrays changes in the region in the past 60 years. All of the participants will be welcomed by UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su, who will present a copy of a new book on UNESCAP history The First Parliament of Asia to Her Royal Highness. ESCAP was founded in March 1947 by the UN
Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC. |
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 Executive
Secretary to chair session at China Development Forum 2007
UNESCAP
Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su will lead a delegation to the 8th annual
meeting of the China
Development Forum, where he will chair a session on Fiscal
Policies Towards a Shift in Economic Growth Dynamic. Among the
participants at the annual Forum, scheduled for 18-19 March in Beijing,
China, are top executives from major multinationals, senior officials
from international organizations, and internationally prestigious
scholars. The theme of the 2007 Forum is China: Towards New Models
of Economic Growth. UNESCAP will present ‘green
growth’ as new growth model for Asia and the Pacific. |
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High level policy dialogue to examine ways of financing infrastructure
development
A recent
policy brief by UNESCAP found that the Asia-Pacific region
requires a staggering US$608 billion per annum to upgrade its infrastructure,
which the brief describes as “largely inadequate and generally
of poor quality, holding back economic development and significantly
reducing quality of life.” With a financing gap of US$220 billion
per year, innovative ways to finance infrastructure in the region
need to be identified. To this end, UNESCAP is collaborating with
the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS),
one of India’s think tank institutes, in organizing a High-level
Policy Dialogue on Regional Cooperation for Infrastructure Development
and Financing in Asia-Pacific in New Delhi, India from
21-22 March. The event is a follow-up to the Ministerial Roundtable
held during the 62nd session
of the UNESCAP Commission held in Jakarta in April 2006 and
the Jakarta
Declaration on Enhancing Regional Cooperation in Infrastructure Development.
Participants will include ESCAP Executive Secretary, ministers, senior government officials, private sector
CEOs and experts, and academics. |
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 Delegates
to tackle road blocks at East & South-East Asia MDG Forum in Hanoi
East and South-East Asia, two of the world’s most dynamic regions,
are known to have made significant progress in achieving the UN’s
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite these advances,
progress both within and between countries is marked by disparities
and inequalities. None of the countries in the two regions are on
track to meet all the goals by the target date of 2015. To tackle
the road blocks obstructing full achievement of the MDGs, UNESCAP
will bring together more than 100 delegates from 12 countries
at the East and South-East
Asia MDG Forum, being held in Hanoi, Viet Nam, 1-2 March.
Participants, who include high-ranking government Ministers, policy
makers, representatives of civil society, business leaders, academics
and the media, are expected to develop an action plan to eradicate
extreme poverty and other ills by 2015. The meeting is organised under
the auspices of a tripartite
regional project of UNESCAP, UN
Development Programme (UNDP), and Asian
Development Bank (ADB). |
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 Week-long
capacity building workshop on trade research offered by WTO/UNESCAP
The
Third ARTNeT Capacity Building Workshop on Trade Research organized
by UNESCAP and the World Trade Organization
(WTO) will be held from 26-30 March in Bangkok. The goal
of the workshop is to develop participants’ ability to conduct
research on WTO-related and other trade policy and facilitation issues.
The Asia-Pacific Research
and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), an initiative of UNESCAP
and Canada’s International
Development Research Centre (IDRC), is an open regional network
of research and academic institutions specializing in international
trade policy and facilitation issues. Members currently include leading
national trade research and academic institutions from developing
countries in East, South and South-East Asia, and the Pacific. UNESCAP’s
Trade and Investment Division acts as ARTNet’s Secretariat,
and operates through a grant from IDRC. WTO, as a core network partner,
provides substantive and financial support to the network. |
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 Theme
of Women’s Day: ‘Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women’
UN agencies and offices in Bangkok will observe International Women’s Day on 8 March in Bangkok. The 2007 theme, ‘Ending Impunity for Violence Against
Women,’ highlights the critical need to create and maintain
a political and social environment in which violence against women
is not tolerated. It also emphasizes the particular importance of
political will and the involvement of men to achieve this goal. According
to the UN, violence against women is a significant cause of death
and disability among women aged 16 to 44. One in five women will be
a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. The Beijing
Declaration and Platform
for Action
includes violence against women as one of 12 critical areas
of concern requiring urgent action towards attaining the goals of
equality, development and peace. It states that violence against women
is a violation of women’s human rights and an impediment to
the full enjoyment by women of all human rights. |
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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 @ 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 | |||