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

Date 16 March 2007
Press Release No: N/11/2007

NOBEL LAUREATE AMARTYA SEN TO RECEIVE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AS PART OF UNESCAP 60TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION

Special lecture and press conference planned for 28-29 March

BANGKOK (United Nations Information Services) – As part of its 60th anniversary celebration, the Bangkok-based United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) will present the first ever UNESCAP Award for Lifetime Achievement on 28 March to one of Asia’s most celebrated economists and Nobel Laureate, Professor Amartya Sen.

“Professor Sen’s seminal contributions in understanding some of the fundamental issues and problems in the theory of social choice, welfare distribution, poverty, famines, democracy, individual freedom and human identity have revolutionized contemporary thinking,” notes UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su. “Not a single day goes by when we in the United Nations do not use his ideas, his principles, and his views in our work.”

Mr. Kim will make the formal presentation during the official anniversary commemoration, set for 15:00-16:30, 28 March. Prior to receiving the award, Professor Sen will give a special lecture at 11:00 in the UN Conference Centre. On 29 March, from 11:30-12:15, Professor Sen will hold a press conference at the UN Conference Centre.

Born in Santiniketan, India, in 1933, Professor Sen was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is currently the Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University, and was until recently the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Professor Sen was the first Asian to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, in 1998, for his contributions to welfare economics.

The 60th anniversary celebration will include a video message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a keynote address by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, and remarks from Thai Prime Minister H.E. General Surayud Chulanont. The programme will also include a specially commissioned dance performance portraying change in the region since 1947, when UNESCAP was founded. As part of the observance, Mr. Kim will present to Her Royal Highness a new book on UNESCAP history entitled The First Parliament of Asia.

Note to Editors: You are invited to attend the lecture and award ceremony (28 March), and press conference (29 March). Due to security requirements, all media representatives must pre-register for these events. Please confirm participation by 26 March. Kindly fax 02 288-1052 the following: 1. Representative’s name; 2. Mobile number; 3. Details of any equipment that will be brought into the Conference Centre on 28 March. Limited parking shall be available at Wat Makutkasattharam, Krungkasem Road (behind UNESCAP).