by Piyaporn Hawiset
26 April 2001
Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries welcomed the role of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in creating a framework for real and effective co-operation among countries in the region. So said Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Tam Chien at the 57th Ministerial Conference of the ESCAP opened in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 23, 2001.
Deputy Minister Chien noted that while the regional countries were adjusting their national development policies and strategy and looking for solutions to urgent social problems, ESCAP should further focus its activities on supporting those countries' priority demands. Mr Chien praised ESCAP's efforts in implementing hunger eradication and poverty alleviation projects and socio-economic development programme in the Mekong sub-region under the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
He briefed delegates of Vietnam's socio-economic achievements over the recent past and its great efforts in striving to reduce the poverty rate to 9-10% in 2001, and accelerating priority programmes in controlling drug addiction and HIV/AIDS spread, traffic accidents and environmental pollution.
The conference was attended by nearly 60 delegations from various countries, territories and international organisations.
Delegates to the conference focused their discussion on issues relating to ESCAP's policies on "Balanced development of urban and rural areas and regions within the countries of Asia and the Pacific," and assessment of socio-economic development in the region in recent years and its impact.