UNCTAD will assess its recent work and plan for the future in the light of recent events in the world economy at a meeting to be held in Bangkok later this month.
The Mid-term Review by UNCTAD´s governing body, the Trade and Development Board (TDB), will provide an opportunity for a wide-ranging exchange of views on the new global economic environment and on the challenges facing the international community in the follow-up to recent world conferences, such as the UN Millennium Assembly, the WTO meeting in Doha and the development financing conference in Monterrey. The meeting (29 April-2 May), to be attended by ministers and senior policy makers from UNCTAD member States, marks the halfway point between UNCTAD´s tenth session, held in Bangkok in February 2000, and UNCTAD XI.
The Review will revolve around three pillars: a review of the efficiency and functioning of the organization´s intergovernmental machinery; a stocktaking on the work programme agreed to at UNCTAD X; and an examination of opportunities and challenges arising from global economic developments and their impact on development. It "may be instrumental in creating an atmosphere of greater mutual understanding of the complexities of the globalization process", said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero at one of the preparatory meetings for the Review.
Format
The meeting is being hosted by the Government of Thailand at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok, on the premises of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). It opens with the first plenary of the TDB´s 19th special session on Tuesday morning, 30 April. The inaugural ceremony at 3.30 p.m. that day will be presided over by the Prime Minister of Thailand, Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra. He will be followed by Dr. Surakiart Sathirathai, Thai Foreign Minister; Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD; and Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of ESCAP.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, 1 May, the first of two high-level interactive debates and policy dialogues will be held, assessing global economic developments and their impact since UNCTAD X, chaired by the Thai Foreign Minister. UNCTAD X opened at a time of resurgent optimism, both for the Asian region and for the world economy generally, but that optimism proved short-lived. The high-tech boom has given way to fears of recession in industrial countries, and new bouts of financial crisis have hit emerging markets, raising concerns about contagion in the developing world through shrinking export markets, weakening commodity prices and falling capital inflows. This session will include an exchange of views on these crises, how countries coped and lessons to be learned.
That afternoon will see the inauguration of the International Trade and Development Institute of Thailand, a direct product of UNCTAD X, at Chulalongkorn University. The institute will conduct research, seminars, training courses and workshops; UNCTAD has assisted in establishing its reference centre and library. Dr. Thaksin and Mr. Ricupero will lead the ribbon-cutting ceremony, after which the Secretary-General of UNCTAD will deliver the institute´s first Rubens Ricupero Lecture. The institute´s seminar series will begin on Friday, 3 May, with two talks by senior UNCTAD economists: Yilmaz Akyüz, Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, in the morning, and Karl Sauvant, Director of the Division on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development, in the afternoon.
The second interactive debate will take place at 9 a.m. Thursday, 2 May, on development challenges of the future. Again chaired by Dr. Surakiart, the session will examine the increasingly convincing case for rethinking development strategies and consider what lessons can still be drawn from successful examples of industrialization and development in seeking the best balance between domestic and foreign sources of growth and development. What is the role of regional arrangements in achieving that balance? How to ensure that international economic relations support growth at a rate fast enough to tackle the deep-seated problems of poverty and underdevelopment? One main objective of this debate is to examine how UNCTAD might prioritize its work on national development strategies and the global economic system.
The closing plenary of the meeting on Thursday afternoon will hear a summary of the two interactive debates prepared by their Chairman, Dr. Surakiart, and a presentation by Mr. Ricupero of his conclusions on the Mid-term Review. The plenary will be followed immediately by a press conference.
Just prior to the meeting, UNCTAD´s annual Trade and Development Report, which this year focuses on developing countries in world trade, will be launched at a press conference to be held at ESCAP headquarters, 11 a.m. Monday, 29 April. The press conference will be given by Mr. Ricupero and Mr. Akyüz, who is also the main author of the Report.