Against the backdrop of the sustained dynamism of the Asia-Pacific region, ESCAP, headed by Mr. Adrianus Mooy, has continued to focus attention on enhancing economic growth and social development among the countries of the region.
In that connection, at its fifty-first session, concluded on 1 May 1995 at Bangkok, the Commission decided to hold a ministerial conference on regional economic cooperation and directed the secretariat to initiate necessary preparations.
The Commission also placed emphasis on promotion of subregional economic cooperation in various fields, including trade and investment. A second consultative meeting among executive heads of subregional organizations and ESCAP was hosted by the secretariat of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) at Jakarta in January 1995.
The Commission emphasized the pivotal role of industrial and technological development in sustaining the growth momentum in the region. The Commission's work in this area was guided by several mandates and directives as enshrined in the Seoul Plan of Action for Promoting and Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Technology-led Industrialization in Asia and the Pacific, the Action Programme for Regional Economic Cooperation in Investment-related Technology Transfer, the Beijing Declaration on Regional Economic Cooperation and the Delhi Declaration on Strengthening Regional Economic Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific towards the Twenty-first Century.
Another important development has been the fifteenth session of the Standing Committee of the Bangkok Agreement, held at Bangkok in February 1995, which decided to launch the third round of negotiations, with a mandate to address both tariff and non-tariff barriers and to explore the possibility of including the services sector in due course.
The Commission endorsed the Jakarta Declaration and Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women in Asia and the Pacific adopted at the Second Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference on Women in Development, held at Jakarta in June 1994. The Jakarta Declaration and Plan of Action served as the regional input to the draft global platform of action for adoption by the forthcoming Fourth World Conference on Women. Following the Ministerial Conference, regional meetings of coordinating bodies of non-governmental organizations and national machineries for the advancement of women were convened to accelerate implementation of the Plan of Action.
An Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference in Preparation for the World Summit for Social Development was organized at Manila in October 1994, at which the Manila Declaration and Agenda for Action for Social Development in the ESCAP region were adopted. As part of the preparatory activities, a symposium of non-governmental organizations was convened by ESCAP prior to the Ministerial Conference.
The Commission's initiatives with regard to its declaration of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, continued to generate significant activities at national and regional levels aimed at improving the status and participation of disabled persons. To date, 30 members and associate members have signed the Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region.
The Commission continued to support national efforts and activities to promote participatory human settlements development. Preparatory work has begun for convening an Asia-Pacific Urban Forum in 1995 which will serve as a key preparatory activity to the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in 1996. The Commission is also working closely with the Regional Network of Local Authorities for the Management of Human Settlements (CITYNET) and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights to assist member countries in addressing urban poverty issues, particularly as they relate to low-income housing and settlements improvement.
In implementing the Bali Declaration on Population and Sustainable Development and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, various inter-country research projects and training courses were conducted; technical assistance was also provided relating to such areas as family planning, population ageing, migration and urbanization, the role and status of women and demographic analysis. Activities of the Asia-Pacific Population Information Network (POPIN) focused on upgrading technical skills in database development and improving population information management and sharing.
Under the theme of environment and sustainable development, the Commission focused attention on the preparations for the Ministerial-level Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific, which will be organized by ESCAP at Bangkok in November 1995, and the prevention of desertification including preparation of the Regional Implementation Annex for Asia to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa.
Under the theme of transport and communications, the Commission pursued its activities related to the implementation of the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development Programme, comprising the Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway projects. Current activities under this project include a study on developing land transport linkages of Kazakstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with seaports of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan in the south and China in the east; a study on the development of a highway network in Asian republics; a Trans-Asian Railway route requirements study; and implementation of ESCAP resolution 48/11 on road and rail transport modes in relation to facilitation measures.
Following the theme topic of the fiftieth session of the Commission "Infrastructure development as key to economic growth and regional economic cooperation", and Commission resolution 50/2 on the "Action plan on infrastructure development in Asia and the Pacific", the Commission at its fifty-first session adopted the New Delhi Action Plan on Infrastructure Development in Asia and the Pacific. The Commission decided to convene a ministerial conference on infrastructure in 1996 to launch the New Delhi action plan and to review phase II (1992-1996) of the Transport and Communications Decade for Asia and the Pacific.
Special efforts were made to improve policies for tourism development, taking into consideration the socio-economic and environmental impact of tourism. Studies on the cultural and environmental impact of tourism provided policy recommendations for the cultural and environmental management of tourism development. ESCAP convened the first meeting of the Working Group on the Greater Mekong Subregion Tourism Sector in April 1995.
The statistics subprogramme of the Commission focused on promoting the improvement of capabilities of national statistical offices in the region for timely and accurate collection and dissemination of statistics needed for development planning and decision-making. Technical meetings were organized to support country work in the implementation of the 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA), in statistics on gender issues and in environment statistics and environmental and resource accounting. Assistance was also provided through advisory services, including those in population statistics, data- processing and national accounts.
The Commission's reaffirmation of its predominant role in promoting regional cooperation in Asia and the Pacific was manifested in the decision by the Russian Federation to seek a revision in its status in order to become a regional member. The application of the Russian Federation was unanimously endorsed by the Commission, which recommended a resolution on the matter for submission to the substantive session of 1995 of the Economic and Social Council.
To meet the need for an integrated and effective approach to development at the regional level, an inter-agency meeting on strengthening coordination at the regional level was convened by ESCAP in May 1994. This meeting established the Regional Inter-agency Committee for Asia and the Pacific under the chairmanship of the Executive Secretary of ESCAP. The first meeting of the Committee was concluded at Bangkok in June 1995.
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