Politics

Home page

Politics

UNESCAP starts 63rd session in Almaty

18 May 2007 11:41 (UTC +04:00)

Officials from 62 governments belonged to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) have gathered in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the week-long meeting â€“ 60 years after the body, then known as the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, was founded in Shanghai.
Azerbaijan is represented in the session by the Transport Ministry officer Sadraddin Mammadov.
Within the scope of the 63rd session the Asia-Pacific Business Forum, a two-day event starting on May 18-19, is taking place alongside the Commission meeting, bringing together business leaders and civil society representatives as well as senior government officials.
UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su said the Forum would â€œprovide participants with a unique platform to discuss opportunities and challenges for Central Asiaâ€™s increasing integration into the global economy and to learn from other Asian experiences.â€
During the Commission meetingâ€™s ministerial segment, which begins on Monday, member nations will examine how the regionâ€™s poorest countries can achieve the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015.
They will also consider a UNESCAP study that shows a clear link between increased investment in health services and improved economic performance. It also recommends making the national health systems more accessible to vulnerable groups.
MDGs and strategies for boosting investments in health care top the agenda at the annual high-level meeting.
Spending on health services is so low in some of the Asia-Pacific regionâ€™s poorest countries â€“ about 20 States spend less than $20 a person each year â€“ that an additional $25 billion would be necessary to meet the minimum requirements, the study found. /APA-Economics/