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

Date 12 April 2006
Press Release No: G/26/CS62/20

UNESCAP’s 62nd Commission Session, 6-12 April 2006

JAKARTA DECLARATION
STEP TO CLOSING
FINANCE GAP

62nd Commission Session closes in Jakarta

JAKARTA, 12 April 2006 – The 62nd Commission session ended today with Ministers and senior officials from over 50 countries adopting the Jakarta Declaration which takes the region a step closer towards financing for crucial infrastructure development.

“The active participation in the deliberations on the Jakarta Declaration underscored our collective political will and commitment to regional cooperation in infrastructure development,” the Chairman of the 62nd Commission, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirajuda said as he announced the successful conclusion of the Session.

“This will translate into improving the lives of nearly 700 million people in our region living in conditions of vulnerability and deprivation,” he said.

The sixty-second session of the Commission adopted 12 resolutions that provide the Secretariat with mandates on regional cooperation in such areas as Pacific island developing countries, trade and investment, tourism, Trans-Asian Railway network, information society in Asia and the Pacific, literacy, statistics, as well as the coordination of early warning system arrangements for tsunamis.

One of the highlights of the Session was the Ministerial Roundtable on Enhancing Regional Cooperation in Infrastructure Development, including that related to Disaster Management.

Participants at the Roundtable agreed that the region should work together to close the financing gap of an estimated US$180 billion to upgrade the region’s infrastructure each year.

“I think we can say we are 70 per cent on the way to finding solutions to close the financing gap, which is very encouraging,” UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su said.

“The region needs a much needed shot in the arm to jump start its economies and fight poverty.”

Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath told the Commission that his Government had commissioned a study to examine all possible options for financing infrastructure, including the strengthening of existing institutions.

The 12 resolutions adopted by the Commission reflected the region’s growing concern about education, public health, rising energy prices and a deteriorating environment. They also reflected the determination of countries to find new ways to finance its development agenda and to increase public-private sector partnerships to achieve them.

Some of the key resolutions included an intergovernmental agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network, enhancing the implementation of the Plan of Action for Sustainable Tourism Development, implementing the Plan of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010, and building an information society in Asia and the Pacific.

With an Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) of early 20 million sq miles and a huge maritime area, the resource-rich Pacific island developing countries and territories, with a total population of eight million, reached out to their Asian counterparts to create “win-win” partnerships.

In what was a first for the Commission, six Pacific leaders had an opportunity to exchange views with other UNESCAP members.

“We believe there is much to be learned from the Asian experiences in economic performance and in poverty alleviation. We look to the relevant agencies, including UNESCAP, to bring together these different ingredients and hopefully come up with a magic formula - with a Pacific flavour - which can be applied to replicate the Asian success in the Pacific,” said H.E. Anote Tong, President Republic of Kiribati.

Headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is the largest of the UN's five Regional Commissions, in terms of population served and area covered. The only inter-governmental forum covering the entire Asia-Pacific region, it aims to promote economic development and social progress in the developing countries of the Asian and Pacific region. More information is available at www.unescap.org.

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