As an emerging economic powerhouse and a growing player on
regional and global issues, China is able to play a leadership role
in the common development of prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,
a high-ranking UN official said on Saturday.
In an interview with Xinhua before her scheduled visit to China
on January 17-23, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of ESCAP
( Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), said
the major challenges now facing the region are different kinds of
"imbalances", such as the issues of economic imbalance, social
imbalance and ecological imbalance.
Heyzer, who is also under-secretary-general of the United
Nations, said the region enjoys fast economic growth, but also has
half of the world's population in poverty. "Uneven economic
development in different parts of countries and between countries,
growing inequality in income, the existence of poverty and social
exclusion, the sustainability and pollution issue -- all need to be
seriously addressed by the ESCAP and its members", she said.
The UN official said one of the areas ESCAP is known for is the
area of "Green Growth", to which China has shown its appreciation,
by integrating the approach in its 11th strategic plan for national social and
economic development, and in fact setting a target of reducing
energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent by the year
2010.
"It is one of the examples that China can play a leading role
through cooperation with the ESCAP, in helping the ESCAP addressing
these challenges in the region", she said.
Heyzer said the ESCAP would like to see the partnership between
the ESCAP and China be further broadened in the future, especially
in the follow-up of the Bali conference last December on the global
issue of climate change.
Commenting on China's progress in the past three decades, she
said, "China is a big economic powerhouse. The target of 'halving
the population in poverty', one of the 'Millennium Development
Goals' that the UN has drafted for the common development of the
world, is met mainly thanks to China."
She also noted China's achievement on South-South cooperation,
that China has lent huge support to East Timor, Cambodia and Laos,
and outside Asia, China has played a big role in the development of
Africa.
"I would encourage China to continue its contribution and to be
actually a major donor to the South-South cooperation, and to not
just focus on bilateral level, but to use multilateral system to
enable more countries to share the experience of China in this
area."
Citing as an example of the impact of China's development in the
region, she referred to an article she recently read which depicts
how the cheap motorbikes produced by China in Laos have increased
the assets of poor households, as well as allowing market access by
improving connectivity to other parts of the country.
"My role as head of ESCAP is to identify different strengths of
our member countries in order to move towards common sustainable
development. I would like to stress that I really look forward to
China's leadership role for the region to continue on the path to
common prosperity." the ESCAP chief said.
China is a member of ESCAP, the regional arm of UN in Asia and
the Pacific.
(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2008)
