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Asia-Pacific Ministerial Meeting to Discuss Poverty Prevention Strategy
Wednesday, 03 August, 2005 | 21:56 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Indonesia is hosting the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Meeting that will discuss Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015.

According to Ngurah Swajaya, Director of Economic Development and Environment at the Multilateral Directorate General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting, which is being held at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) between August 3 and August 5, 2005, is aimed at forming a joint strategy between the countries in the Asia-Pacific region to create a road map to achieve MDG targets in 2015.

This road map will be presented at the MDG Summit in New York this September.

The meeting is also aimed at identifying and forming the Jakarta Declaration that contains the MDG implementation strategy within the framework of South-South and North-South cooperation in order to achieve the MDGs.

Forty out of 53 countries in the Asia-Pacific region have confirmed their presence in the Meeting.

“This is a strategy of Asia-Pacific region countries and G-8 countries,” said Swajaya.

According to him, the establishment of MDGs in Asia Pacific is due to the perception at a global level that the Asia-Pacific region is highly developed in terms of MDGs with the result that they are no longer a priority.

According to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Director Raj Kumar, this perception has arisen following the economic growth of the region.

“Although this perception is correct, the Asia-Pacific region has the poorest areas in the world. Poor people here amount to two thirds of poor people in the world,” said Kumar. (Agus Supriyanto-Tempo News Room)