Bangkok--3 Sep--UNISBKK
The flagship report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) this year recommends substantial reforms for preventing a recurrence of the year-old economic and financial crisis. The Trade and Development Report 2009 also reviews the effects of the worst economic downturn since the Second World War on prospects for achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals — which seek to halve extreme poverty, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases as well as tackle other global ills — by the stated target of 2015. A special chapter on the economic implications of climate change for developing countries contends that efforts to mitigate climate shifts should not be regarded as obstacles to economic progress but as
opportunities.