The effect of rising food prices and the financial crisis on vulnerable groups, particularly in Asian developing countries, will be a key topic at a session of the Technical Committee of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Agricultural Engineering and Machinery (APCAEM), a subsidiary body of ESCAP, scheduled to take place in Chiang Rai, Thailand, from 1 to 3 December. The session will also focus on the improvements of agricultural productivity through agricultural science and technology. Subsequently, the fourth session of APCAEM’s Governing Council will take place, from 4 to 5 December, at which the Governing Council is expected to review the Centre’s 2008 activities and its 2009 work plan.  

The Third Session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT), a subsidiary body of ESCAP, will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on 9 December. It will be attended by Governing Council members from Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Thailand and the Republic of Korea. The first official national workshop of the APCICT’s training curriculum, the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders, will be showcased to the Governing Council members to solicit their support in organizing similar workshops in their own countries; and, on 10-12 December, 30 Mongolian government officials will undertake the training course.

ESCAP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy of Mongolia and the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI), will be holding the Fourth Session of the Senior Officials Committee (SOC-4) on Energy Cooperation in North-East Asia in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 10 to 11 December. The SOC, which is the decision-making body of the Intergovernmental Collaborative Mechanism on Energy Cooperation in North-East Asia, will review the progress of implementation of the Mechanism’s activities in 2008. The SOC will be attended by government officials and experts from China, Japan, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. The meeting will also review and discuss the Joint Study on Energy Production Potential and Development Plans in North-East Asian Countries (Part 1) and the report of the second Government-Business Dialogue (GBD), including a number of management issues on the strategic direction of the initiative. The GBD-2, which will be held back-to-back with the SOC-4 (8 and 9 December ), aims to enhance collaboration between the government and the business sectors for expansion of energy development and trade within North-East Asia.
 

ESCAP’s Statistics Division, in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division, is organizing a workshop on the monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The workshop will be held in Bangkok, from 10 to 12 December. The aim of the workshop is to review recommendations for the reporting of MDG data and to establish strategies for dealing with data discrepancies and data gaps at the national and international level. In addition, the workshop will provide participants with the skills needed to improve sub-national data and use administrative records as data sources for the MDG indicators.
 

In collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investment and Trade of Uzbekistan, ESCAP’s Transport Division is organizing a policy-level Expert Group Meeting on Operationalization of International Intermodal Transport Corridors in North-East and Central Asia, from 10 to 11 December, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The meeting will review the current status of identified intermodal transport corridors linking North-East and Central Asia, including routes of the Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway networks. The meeting aims to agree on and recommend two to three priority corridors for in-depth study.
 

Youth experts will gather in Bangkok to discuss ways to scale-up the implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) in the Asia-Pacific, at a meeting organized by ESCAP’s Social Development Division, from 11 to 12 December. WPAY covers 15 youth development priority areas. The implementation of four key areas in the context of globalization will be assessed during the meeting. The four areas are: employment generation, the use of ICT in education, youth health and well-being, and juvenile justice. The meeting will adopt a set of recommendations for youth-related policy and actions aimed at scaling-up the implementation of the WPAY in the region.
 

The first session of the Committee on Statistics of ESCAP will take place from 15 to 17 December, at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok. The meeting will be attended by the heads of National Statistical Offices and senior representatives of regional and international organizations working in the field of statistics. The inaugural session will determine the strategic direction and priorities of the Committee on Statistics, as well as how it could work effectively to advance the developmental needs of member States in Asia and the Pacific. The meeting will focus on topical issues that include statistical development in the Asia and the Pacific; regional technical cooperation; gender statistics; economic statistics; population estimates and measuring progress.