6 May 2010

UN / ESCAP SURVEY 2010

A UN report urges governments in the Asia-Pacific region to increase social spending to consolidate the region’s stronger than anticipated economic rebound and to spur over the long term a fairer, more balanced, and sustained economic recovery. UNTV / FILE

Posted at: May 6, 2010 2:41 pm

Duration: 01:32

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / ESCAP SURVEY 2010
TRT: 1.32
SOURCE: UNTV / WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 6 MAY 2010, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

RECENT 2010, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, panel
2. Wide shot. reporters
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development:
"There is there is the real possibility given the strength of the recovery in Asia as opposed to other parts of the world that Asia will be the engine of economic recovery in the immediate period."
4. Cutaway, photographer
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development:
"Compared to all other regions in the world, poverty has gone down most of all in the Asia Pacific region. But this is largely accounted for by the reduction of poverty in China and one should not generalize too much for the whole of Asia because of what has happened in China principally, but also in other parts of East Asia."

FILE - JUNE 2008, PHILIPPINES

5. Wide shot, street
6. Med shot, unloading rice bags at a harbor

FILE - JANUARY 2009, LAOS

7. Wide shot, people shopping

FILE - MAY 2008, CHINA

8. Wide shot, City shot
9. Wide shot, Shopping
10. Wide shot, street lit up at night 
11. Wide shot, street, daytime
12. Wide shot, construction
13. Pan right, city

FILE - JUNE 2008, PHILIPPINES

14. Wide shot, ramshackle house
15. Close up, kid

FILE - JANUARY 2009, LAOS

16. Med shot, bike vendor

STORYLINE

A United Nations (UN) report released today (6 May) urged governments in the Asia-Pacific region to increase social spending to consolidate the region's stronger than anticipated economic rebound and to spur over the long term a fairer, more balanced, and sustained economic recovery.

According to the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2010, an annual publication of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), even at the height of this crisis, Asia and the Pacific was still the fastest-growing region in the world, supported in large part by fiscal stimulus packages adopted by the region's biggest economies.

Launching the report today at the UN in New York, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, said that there was the real possibility, given the strength of the recovery in Asia, that Asia could be "the engine of economic recovery in the immediate period."

The Survey found that the outlook for 2010 had improved significantly, with Asia-Pacific region developing economies forecast to grow by seven per cent, led by China (9.5) and India (8.3).

Sundaram also said that compared to all other regions in the world, poverty had gone down most of all in the Asia Pacific region. He added that that was largely accounted for by the reduction of poverty in China.

The Survey promoted a number of regional policy recommendations for inclusive and sustainable growth, such as strengthening social protection and enhancing financial inclusion.

Increased social spending directly supports income security for households by providing food security, education and access to health care, reducing the need by poorer families to maintain precautionary savings to protect against adversity.

Also, as the majority of the region's poor live in rural areas deriving their income from agriculture and will benefit from agricultural growth, the Survey recommended continued support for crop and rural development, urging a new, knowledge-intensive Green Revolution to make agriculture more environmentally resilient.  
 
The Survey recommended that Asia and the Pacific should increase efforts to create a more integrated and sustained regional market benefiting both national economies and a larger consumer class.

The Survey identifies a number of priorities - enhancing regional economic integration and integrated trade and transport policies, development of a regional financial architecture - that can lay the foundations for a more inclusive, interconnected and sustainable path of development for the region.