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..Press
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UNESCAP News Services
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Date 18
May 2005
Press Release No: G/CS61/10/2005
ICT DEVELOPMENT CENTRE TO OPEN IN REPUBLIC
OF KOREA
61ST ESCAP COMMISSION SESSION ENDS
BANGKOK (United Nations Information Services)—A
landmark resolution to establish the first regional Training
Centre for Information and Communications Technology (APCICT)
for Development in the Republic of Korea was approved at the
close the ESCAP’s 61st Commission Session today.
The Centre, expected to open 2006, will cost US$10
million pledged by the Republic of Korea, will help build the
capacity of ESCAP member countries through training programmes
in the use of information and communications technology (ICT).
Eleven other resolutions - the largest number
passed in a decade - called for coherent policies and strategies
sorely needed to breach the region’s cycles of poverty.
They include enhancing the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus,
and economic and social programmes for the region to achieve
the Millennium Development goals.
Other resolutions aimed at strengthening technical
assistance activities and capacity–building included the
revitalization of the ESCAP’s regional institutions, namely,
the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific; the Asian
and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology; the United Nations
Asian and Pacific Centre for Agricultural Engineering and Machinery;
the Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops
Development in Asia and the Pacific.
In the area of social concerns, other resolutions
encouraged regional cooperation for the protection of vulnerable
people through the promotion of economic and social aspects
of human security as a follow-up to the Shanghai Declaration.
Member governments also renewed their commitments to implementing
the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive,
Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities.
Under the Session’s theme of Implementing
the Monterrey Consensus in the Asian and Pacific region: Achieving
coherence and consistency, the Commission requested “the
Secretariat to provide a forum for the exchange of experience
in the areas of resource mobilization finance and trade, and
that development cooperation between ESCAP and regional and
international institutions should be enhanced.”
The Commission noted that the Asia-Pacific region
had the world’s highest saving rate, which meant that
savings could be channelled towards investment related to economic
and human development. The Ministerial Roundtable on Financing
on Development noted that the region faces major challenges
in securing funds for social and physical infrastructure.
ESCAP was asked prepare a feasibility study for
a possible establishment of an Asian Investment Bank, modelled
after the European Investment Bank.
Mr. Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of UNESCAP,
urged donor countries to fulfil pledges to countries devastated
by last December’s Tsunami at a High-level Panel on Tsunami
Recovery Development. He said that only about US$ 2.5 billion
out of a pledged $ 6.7 billion had been paid up so far by donors,
and that up to US$ 15 billion would be needed for recovery efforts
over the next three to five years in the five most devastated
countries.
The Second Asia-Pacific Business Forum (APBF-2005)
was held in the theme of “Changes, Challenges and Opportunities
for Asia and the Pacific.”
Top CEOs attending the roundtable on the Tsunami
disaster heard Mr. E. Bowles, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami
Recovery, who said that the corporate sector’s response
to the tsunami was unprecedented in its scale and generosity.
”If that spirit of solidarity can be intertwined with
the spirit of entrepreneurship necessary for economic growth,
their result could be truly revolutionary.”
The Commission highlighted the need to enhance
regional cooperation for disaster preparedness, including the
establishment of regional monitoring and early warning mechanisms.
“The Commission was a success and addressed
the problems of bridging the poverty gap, and finding fresh
ways to deal with challenges in the region. We must make poverty
history,” said H.E. Mr Kassymzhomart Tokaev Foreign Minister
of Kazakhstan and Chairperson of the Commission Session.
The Commission welcomed the generous offer of
the Government of Indonesia to host the Sixty-second session
in Indonesia and endorsed “Enhancing regional cooperation
in infrastructure development, including that related to disaster
management,” as it 2006 theme topic.
For further information please contact:
Mr. David Lazarus, Chief
UN Information Services Bangkok
Tel: +(66-2) 288-1861-69, Fax: +(66-2) 288-1052
E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org
www.unescap.org
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