by Piyaporn Hawiset
6 June 2003
The prospect of a prolonged economic recession caused concern that progress towards UN social development goals would recede or stagnate, United Nations officials said on June 5, 2003. The remarks were made at the launching of a report compiled by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and the UN Development Programme.
ESCAP shared the World Bank forecast that the region would still outperform others despite downside risks, said economist Raj Kumar. But poverty reduction, he added, was proceeding more slowly now because the regional states were not enjoying the same growth rates as those before the 1997 financial crisis. Kim Hak-Su, ESCAP's executive secretary, said countries recording high growth rates, like Thailand and China, suffered somewhat less inequality.
Robert England, of the UNDP, stressed the importance of governance, or the way society is organised, and how governments are "held accountable" to their people. He also pointed to a scarcity of "good data" in many countries.
Homi Kharas, chief economist of the World Bank, said poorer economies in East Asia in particular needed to "plan for the worst" even though they might have strong fundamentals like education, high savings and a productive business sector.
Sheldon Shaeffer, of the United Nations Economic Social and Cultural Organisation, said high rates of HIV/Aids, like those of poverty, could return to the region unless states advocated against them, promoted sustained analysis, and fought "indifference and self-satisfaction."
Mr Kim estimated the regional population of HIV/Aids sufferers at about seven million. In Thailand, he said, "strong political commitment" had reduced the affected population from one million to about 700,000 at present. But the number of Thai children orphaned by the HIV/Aids, says the report, had increased from 48,000 at the end of 1997 to 75,000 in 1999, to 290,000 in 2001. The figures came from UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation.
Besides poverty eradication and battles against deadly diseases, world leaders who convened in New York in September 2000 also pledged to achieve by 2015: universal primary education, more gender equality, less child mortality, more maternal health, environmental sustainability, and a partnership for development.
In environmental protection, Thailand ranked bottom among 11 Southeast Asian countries, with 3.3 % of land area covered by forest in 2000. Brunei topped the list with 85.8% of forested land, followed by Cambodia with 83.9 %, Malaysia 65.9%, Indonesia 65.2%, and Burma 60.2%.
Overseas development aid, foreign direct investment and trade gains were the most important external sources for meeting the millenium goals, the report said. More south-south co-operation, through development of existing trade initiatives, sharing of technical innovations, and debt monitoring would help, the report added.