THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL'S MESSAGE TO THE 58TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (Delivered by Mr. Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary, UN/ESCAP)
Bangkok, 16-22 May 2002

It gives me great pleasure to convey my best wishes to the delegations attending the fifty-eighth session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

You meet at an important juncture.

Last year's agreement by the World Trade Organization in Doha has offered the prospect of a true "development round" of trade negotiations, and therefore of a global market that is fair and that gives men and women in the developing world a chance to trade their way out of poverty.

The recently-concluded International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey offers the promise that developing countries will be able to seize such an opportunity by mobilizing the resources that are so desperately needed for development.

Our next challenge is to seize the opportunity presented by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg to send a clear message that development is not development if it is not environmentally sound and cannot be kept going over the long term.

Each of these events holds significant implications for the ESCAP region. Many countries were hard hit by the global economic slowdown of 2001. Many were making gains in raising employment, reducing poverty and reforming policies, only to see that progress interrupted.

ESCAP has an important role to play in ensuring that Asia's voice is heard at Johannesburg and in supporting the region's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Please accept my best wishes for the success of your deliberations.

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