Bangkok--23 Jul--UN Regional co-operation crucial for addressing economic, social and environmental challenges in the region Participants at a UNESCAP, ADB, UNDP development forum which closed today in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, have called on North and Central Asian governments to channel the benefits of strong economic growth in recent years to lagging social sectors, by improving educational and health care services. Participants also highlighted the importance of monitoring the use of dwindling water resources. The recommendations today at the close of the North and Central Asian MDG Forum held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. More than 100 participants from 11 countries identified child mortality, undernourishment and poverty among children and marginalized groups, and lack of access to affordable social services as major road blocks to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They emphasized the need for strong legal frameworks for protecting children’s rights, targeted social assistance to poor and marginalized groups, quotas for women in parliament, and an inter-governmental agreement on labour migration to ease worker remittances. The Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Mr. Shigeru Mochida, told the Forum that “the sub-regional action plan placed considerable emphasis on regional co-operation, not only in economic sectors but also in social and environmental areas; not only among governments but also across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including civil society organizations”. Mr. Ashraf Malik, the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Country Director for Kyrgyzstan, said ADB welcomed proposals for “enhancing regional cooperation for trade between the Central Asian and Caucasus countries on the one side, and with neighboring countries such as the People’s Republic of China and through Afghanistan to the South Asian market on the other”. He added, “this requires investments in infrastructure as well as better transit arrangements”.Mr. Jacek Curkowski, MDG Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Centre in Bratislava, said while high growth in the region is welcome, “in several countries of the region the MDGs are not likely to be met with the current growth alone”. He emphasized that “countries need to scale up their support for national MDGs”.Other points in the Plan of Action include recommendations to establish free economic zones, initiate a sub-regional plan for tourism, establish a mechanism for Integrated Water Resource Management within existing inter-governmental processes, improve national statistical capacity to monitor progress on MDGs, introduce Community Based Monitoring Systems to track progress on MDGs, create national ombudsman positions to address corruption, carry out public awareness campaigns on child rights, and establish mechanisms to learn from other country experiences in reducing poverty.The Forum is part of a tripartite MDG initiative by UNESCAP, UNDP and ADB. A South Asia regional forum was held in Nepal in October in 2006; and an East and South-East Asia forum in Viet Nam in March 2007.For more information, pleas contact:Antonin Coeur-BizotPoverty and Development DivisionUNESCAPTel: +(66-2) 288-1635Fax: +(66-2) 288-3007E-mail: [email protected] BrazhkoCommunication OfficerUNDP country officeBishkek, KyrgyzstanTel: +996 (312) 61-12-11Fax: +996 (312) 61-12-17E-mail: [email protected]