Mr. Chairman,
Executive Secretary Dr. Noeleen Heyzer,
Honorable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would first like to express a warm congratulation on your assumption of the chairmanship of this Session. Also I sincerely thank Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Secretary, as well as, the ESCAP Secretariat, and the Thai government for preparing this 65th session of ESCAP.

Mr. Chairman,

    Just a year ago, when we gathered at the 64th session of ESCAP, we celebrated what the Asia-Pacific region had achieved over the past several decades, having enjoyed an annual growth rate of 8.2%. We ended the session feeling confident that our development would be kept sustained and well managed through more years to come. A year later, however, we find ourselves in the midst of a global economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Even though the crisis originated from outside the region, the Asia-Pacific was no exception to grievous impacts of the crisis, which extended into the most basic streams of our daily life.

    In clear awareness of the challenges we now face, let us not shrink back in fear of losing what we have thus far achieved, rather let us take up this hardship to revise the weaknesses that we had and redefine and solidify the stance of the Asia-Pacific region as the leading engine of growth for the world economy.

    This is why the Commission session today is all the more meaningful in achieving such ends. We need to work towards establishing regional cooperation frameworks in order to address the current economic crisis and the ensuing challenges, eventually making it possible for us to secure a much resilient and robust Asia-Pacific economy for our future generations.

Mr. Chairman,

    In this vein, I would like to point out some of the key issues that demand our unwavering attention.

    First, we should reinforce trade as the main engine of economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region. The ESCAP member countries as well as all other countries should not succumb to the temptation of protectionism that will only deteriorate the whole region. In this context, Korea suggested not to set up new barriers to trade at the Washington G20 Summit last November and at the following London Summit earlier this month. Korea went one step further to call upon trading partners to rectify any protectionist measures that may have been installed. It is of a critical importance that we join in preserving this standstill principle to reinstate faith in free trade and guarantee mutual benefits across the region and the whole international community.

Secondly, the importance of ‘green growth’ is getting bigger. The 'Green growth' as the new paradigm for Asia-Pacific will provide a critical leeway out of the threatening conditions of climate change and energy shortage, as well as, the current economic crisis. The dissemination of low carbon green growth, pursued at the regional level, will lead us to accomplish a common eco-efficiency and enhance competitiveness for the region’s industries. Korea is one of the forerunners in implemetation of green growth initiatives, having announced earlier this year its own ambitious policy based on the Green New Deal. I wish to take this opportunity to emphasize again low carbon green growth in the region, which will help us revive our economy by creating thousands of new jobs in innovative new sectors of our region’s industries.

    The third key issue to note is the rapidly changing political-economic landscape in this time of economic turbulence. Representation of developing countries in dealing with global issues is becoming more important. At the London Summit, partners from ASEAN and Africa were invited. Such trend will continue. We, the Asian-Pacific region, learned lessons from our experiences of the financial crisis in the late 1990s, and now we have the increased voices to contribute to overcoming the current economic crisis. In this regard, ESCAP should be a platform to promote regional cooperation and thus to contribute to recovery of economic growth and sustainable prosperity in the world and the region as well.

Mr. Chairman,

Now, I would like to direct your attention to this year's theme topic "Food security". The Asia-Pacific region is densely populated with frequent natural disasters that vastly affect the balance of food supply and demand. Even though food prices have recently declined, they are still yet to recover a state of equilibrium and settle worries over another round of soaring prices in the future.

Also, with the recent ongoing economic crisis, there is a growing concern that aid to developing countries may fall short of what is expected as in the previous years. The financial crisis has aggravated the already dire situation of the people with the least income, who are obviously most vulnerable to the food crisis. We should therefore reaffirm and remain committed to our pledge to help developing countries overcome the food crisis, and to seek ways to reach far out to those who are in most need.

In the case of Korea, we have decided to contribute 100 million US dollars over the three years from 2009 to 2011, furthering cooperation to improve food security in the region. In line with this, Korea will host the 30th FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific in 2010.

Mr. Chairman,

The Korean government appreciates how ESCAP has consistently pursued structural reforms over the years and note that the reform initiatives have been accelerated since Executive Secretary Dr. Noeleen Heyzer took office. With regard, Korea also takes note of this Commission’s timely efforts in helping member states to resolve various development challenges in the region through conventions like the High-level Regional Policy Dialogue in December 2008 and UN-ASEAN conference for the Post-Nargis recovery in February 2009. In addition, we also support ESCAP's initiative of Disaster Risk Reduction and are happy to remind the Commission that Korea hosted UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction North-East regional office and is set to host its fourth Asian Ministerial Conference in 2010. In relation to ESCAP subregional office establishments, Korea believes that these offices should be located where they can optimize their performance. Korea is willing to contribute to this process of establishing subregional offices.

However, it is still worth mentioning the significance of improving and streamlining ESCAP’s work to avoid overlap of functioning areas with other UN organizations which will help better efficiency and effective aid delivery. Therefore, ESCAP should find a niche where it has a clear comparative advantage to excel at its maximum capacity and enable it to fully utilize its strategic leverages such as its expansive membership. ESCAP will then not only fulfill member states' growing expectations and demands, but will also help Asia in addressing the threatening challenges that it confronts.

Mr. Chairman

Last year, I had the honor of assuming the chairmanship of the 64th Commission Session of ESCAP and Korea welcomed the official visit of the Executive Secretary Dr. Noeleen Heyzer to Korea. Korea contributed to extra-budget of ESCAP, with the amount of 3 million dollars last year. Also under the Korea-ESCAP Cooperation Fund(KECF), we contributed almost 10 million dollars to KECF projects since its foundation. All these events mounted up to mark a significant progress in the Korea-ESCAP relationship. I hope to continue this momentum of Korea-ESCAP cooperation and in line with this I am delighted to announce that Korea is willing to host the 66th UN ESCAP Commission Session in the city of Incheon next year.

Mr. Chairman,

ESCAP is an important platform for member countries to participate in regional cooperation. I hope that ESCAP will play a significant role in dealing with the current challenges and securing sustained and inclusive development across the whole region.

I wish to call on the distinguished delegates present here today to continue to hold a strong interest and support ESCAP to carry out its significant duties for the region of Asia-Pacific.
Thank you.