UN Asia-Pacific commission plans changes to focus more on poverty, globalization 21 May - The United Nations commission for Asia and the Pacific today announced that government officials from the region have agreed to a plan that would revamp the agency's work by focusing it more on poverty reduction, globalization and emerging social issues. In announcing the plan, the head of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Kim Hak-Su, said it was time "to change the way the UN works in Asia and the Pacific and perhaps we can be a reference to other regional Commissions." "As important as discussion and dialogue is to the UN, we need very much to follow-up our words with action," said Mr. Kim, ESCAP's Executive Secretary. The changes were announced after a closed-door roundtable meeting of government ministers at the 58th annual session of the Commission being held in Bangkok. The ministers are expected to adopt a resolution tomorrow to formally grant approval to the new scheme. Mr.
Kim also pledged his commitment to making the Commission's work programmes more results oriented, referring to such Millennium Development Goals as halving poverty by 2015. " In a sense, all our work at the Commission is devoted to reducing poverty and this we will try to do," he stressed. Given the special expertise of some Asian countries in space and satellite technology, ESCAP also said that as part of the changes emphasis would be put on the region-wide promotion of "Information, Communication and Space Technology" (ICST). SOURCE: United Nations, New York
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