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..Press
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UNESCAP News Services
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Date 27
March 2005
Press Release No: N/16/2005
NEW DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK FOR GREATER EQUITABILITY
AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH TO BE PROPOSED AT MCED 2005
Participants include Korean Minister of
Environment, heads of UNESCAP
and UNEP, Prof. Akio Morishima, Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto
Bangkok (Nations Information Services) -- A new
development framework for greater equitability and sustainable
growth in the Asia-Pacific region will be proposed by the Asia-Pacific
Forum for Environment and Development (APFED) at the Ministerial
Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific
2005.
The framework will be outlined at a special APFED
Multi-stakeholder Forum scheduled for 27 March.
Held under the theme “Achieving an Equitable
and Environmentally Sustainable Society,” the Forum aims
to highlight critical environment and development issues identified
by APFED in the three-year span of its work. APFED was established
following MCED 2000 as a forum of 26 eminent persons nominated
by countries in the Asia-Pacific region and international organizations.
Participants of note include Mr. Kwak Kyul-Ho,
Minister of Environment, Republic of Korea, Mr. Kim Hak-Su,
UNESCAP Executive Secretary, Mr. Klaus Töpfer, Executive
Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Prof. Akio Morishima,
Chair of the Board of Directors, IGES, and Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto,
Former Prime Minister of Japan and Chair of APFED.
Organizers are advocating a paradigm shift in
the way people associate themselves with the economy, society
and the environment. In this new framework, quality of life
and human contentment, not economic growth and material wealth,
will be the prime concerns for all.
The Forum, which hopes to promote sustainable
growth in Asia and the Pacific, will also call for a broad support
for the APFED Action Platform which highlights the importance
of creating a knowledge-based network among strategic research
institutes in the region.
The event is sponsored and organised by the Ministry
of the Environment, Japan, and the Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies (IGES) in collaboration with UNEP and UNESCAP, and
with assistance from Asian Development Bank and United Nations
University.
The APFED Multi-stakeholder Forum will be held
at in Sapphire Ballroom (#2, 3), 3 F of the Lotte Hotel Seoul.
Conference delegates are invited to attend.
For further information, please contact:
Ms. Hitomi Rankine, UNESCAP
Tel: +(66-2) 288-1429
E-mail: rankine.unescap@un.org
Mr. Hideyuki Mori, IGES
Tel: +(81-3) 3595-1081
E-mail: apfed@iges.or.jp
For media inquiries, please contact:
Mr. David Lazarus, Chief, UN Information Services
Bangkok
Tel: +(66-2) 288-1861/4; Fax: +(66-2) 288-1052
E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org
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