Press Release.............................. UNESCAP News Services

1 September 2003
Press Release No: L/24/2003

Fifty-ninth session (Phase II)
1-4 September 2003
Bangkok

UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL
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VIDEO MESSAGE FOR THE 59TH SESSION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Bangkok, 1 September 2003

Dear friends,

You meet at a decisive moment in the history of your region, and you have chosen to focus on a vital topic.

In recent decades more people have escaped from poverty in Asia and the Pacific than in any other part of the world, and more than in any previous time. You have done more than any other region to make globalisation work to your advantage.

These gains have impressed the whole world. You must cherish, and carefully nurture them. Above all, you must not let them be reversed by the growing threat of HIV/AIDS.

More than eight million people in your region are now living with HIV/AIDS, and the number is rising fast. Some areas have been battling the epidemic for well over a decade. But it has now reached almost every corner of the region.

Left unchecked, AIDS will not only devastate millions of lives; it will also impose huge burdens on the region's health systems, and soak up resources that are badly needed for social and economic development.

So the fight against HIV/AIDS requires constant vigilance and renewal. We know, from experience elsewhere, that the spread can be turned back when - but only when - there is a coordinated response, from all sectors of society and every branch of Government. It requires leadership at every level.

As representatives of your region's Governments, all of you can help make that happen. It is a vital responsibility.

One of our Millennium Development Goals, agreed by all the world's Governments, is to halt, and begin to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the world by the year 2015. As the world's largest region -- both in area and in population - you have a decisive part to play in ensuring that we reach that goal. There is no time to lose.

I commend you, therefore, for choosing to focus on HIV/AIDS at this session. It is a terrifying challenge. But, if you bring all your energy and imagination into play, I have no doubt that you can beat it.

Thank you, and good luck!

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