World-wide launch of UNESCAP’s flagship report

Asia-Pacific region is becoming the engine of global growth. The 2007 outlook for the region is characterized by continuing dynamism, he said. This optimism is despite the slowing US economy and a decline in global electronics demand. Dr Malik described the performance of South Asian economies as “impressive”

By Antony Motha

At a simultaneous world-wide event last week, UNESCAP launched the ‘Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2007’. The 59th edition of the organisation’s flagship publication is a comprehensive and extremely readable 190-page report.
In his welcome address at the Colombo launch, Abu Selim, UNDP’s Country Director, said the publication would be useful as a policy guide for each individual country. This is because the report considers both the economic and social sides of the development coin.

The impressive 7.9% growth in the Asia-Pacific region’s developing economies during 2006 represents one third of worldwide growth. “Despite this encouraging trend,” Selim cautioned, “there is no room for complacency.” Caught up in the obsession with growth, countries have been tending to overlook the need for poverty alleviation.

Presenting the report, Dr Muhammad Hussain Malik, Economic Affairs Officer at UNESCAP Bangkok, pointed out that the Asia-Pacific region is becoming the engine of global growth. The 2007 outlook for the region is characterized by continuing dynamism, he said. This optimism is despite the slowing US economy and a decline in global electronics demand. Dr Malik described the performance of South Asian economies as “impressive”.

The likely global slowdown in 2007 would cast its shadow on Sri Lanka’s GDP growth rate, which is seen growing at 7% this year, predicts Dr Malik. In addition, with inflation ruling at an unacceptably high level, the government could resort to measures that would lead to demand contraction. “The reform process needs to be maintained, to sustain high growth”, urges Dr Malik, while calling for higher spending on rural infrastructure in South Asia. The incidence of poverty in the region is higher in rural than in urban areas. The challenge confronting governments, therefore, is to ensure growth that is inclusive and broad based, he points out. A rupee spent on roads has seven times as much impact on poverty alleviation as a rupee spent on specific anti-poverty programmes.

The UNESCAP report has a chapter on gender discrimination. The annual economic cost of low participation of women in the labour force has been estimated at $ 42 – 47 billion. Dr Malik believes that the drive for a more equitable gender balance would consume little effort and cost, if only there is strong political commitment. In the World Economic Forum’s ‘Gender Equality Index’, Sri Lanka is ranked 13th – out of more than 100 countries assessed. The other South Asian nations languish among the bottom 25.

Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director at the Institute of Policy Studies, spoke about Sri Lanka’s economy. The Asian buoyancy has contributed one percentage point to the country’s growth rate of 7.4%, he suggested. He also said that the country has adequate foreign exchange reserves for three months’ imports. Dr Kelegama struck a note of caution while drawing attention to the budget deficit during 2006. At 8.4% of GDP, this was among the highest in South Asia, “partly as a result of higher military spending.”