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Viewing cable 09BANGKOK1088, UNESCAP 65TH COMMISSION SESSION DISCUSSES THE FINANCIAL

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09BANGKOK1088 2009-05-01 05:14 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Bangkok
VZCZCXRO4082
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHBK #1088/01 1210514
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 010514Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6897
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2125
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 5424
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 001088 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IO/EDA (DBALZER) 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID EAGR IR CH INCB KS JA PK RS XB TH
SUBJECT:  UNESCAP 65TH COMMISSION SESSION DISCUSSES THE FINANCIAL 
CRISIS 
 
1. (SBU) Summary.  The United Nations Economic and Social Commission 
for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) held its 65th annual session at 
its headquarters in Bangkok on April 23-29.  A recurrent topic of 
discussion was the current global economic downturn and the 
meeting's ministerial segment provided a snapshot of regional 
perspectives of a crisis largely considered to be externally 
created, but which a number of countries are seeking to address 
through fiscal stimulus packages.  The Commission passed six 
resolutions by consensus, including again deferring action on Iran's 
proposal to establish a disaster management center in Tehran. 
Choosing the sites for three new sub-regional ESCAP offices will 
remain a delicate task for the Executive Secretariat.  Participants 
noted the remarkably agreeable tone of this year's meeting, in which 
the most contentious issue proved to be the selection of the theme 
topic for ESCAP-66 next year.  End summary. 
 
Commentary on the Economic Crisis 
-------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) The theme of the ministerial segment of this year's 
meeting was "Towards sustainable agriculture and food security in 
the Asia-Pacific region."  But most delegations devoted their 
statements to the impacts and their responses to the global 
financial crisis and economic downturn.  The U.S. statement 
acknowledged the need for greater oversight and reform of the 
international financial system, but stressed the need for all 
countries to take appropriate actions to help resolve the crisis. 
(Note: Of the three ESCAP members outside the region-the U.S., the 
U.K. and France-only the U.S. takes an active part.) 
 
3.  (SBU) On April 28 the ESCAP Executive Secretary, Noeleen Heyzer, 
moderated a high-level panel on the economic crisis, comprising Mr. 
Kim Jong-hoon, Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea; Mr. 
Abdoulie Janneh, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for 
Africa (ECA); Mr. Jan Kubis, Executive Secretary of the Economic 
Commmission for Europe (ECE); Mr. Ajay Chhibber, Assistant 
Administrator and Director, Regional Bureau for Asia and the 
Pacific, UNDP (via recorded video message); and Mr. Martin Khor, 
Executive Director of the South Centre. Referring to this as the 
worst economic recession since the Great Depression, they stated 
that the crisis began outside of the region - from developed 
countries - and developing countries were not responsible, but were 
the hardest hit. 
 
4.  (SBU) The panelist from the ECA highlighted the need for 
developed countries to keep to their official development assistance 
(ODA) commitments - especially during this crisis.  The panelist 
from the South Centre mentioned that some stimulus package measures 
in developed countries may contain protectionist elements that would 
have adverse effects on developing countries.  There was one call 
for the developed countries which were responsible for the financial 
crisis to make "special compensation" to the developing countries 
which have been hurt the most.  There was also strong condemnation 
of agricultural subsidies in developed countries.  Despite these 
statements, however, the meeting was largely devoted to solving 
problems, rather than casting blame. 
 
5.  (SBU) Common points over the course of the Commission were the 
need for a global solution to the financial crisis, the need to 
avoid protectionist measures, the need to consider the establishment 
of more stable and durable exchange rate systems at the regional 
level, the impact of "overdependence" on the US Dollar as a reserve 
currency, and the need for social protection systems.  One country 
called for a re-evaluation of the market system as the basis for 
world food production.  Vietnam, on the other hand, touted its turn 
to market capitalism as enabling it to turn from a rice importer to 
a major rice exporter.  The Korean minister specifically mentioned 
his country's new project - the Green New Deal - which will seek to 
develop green technology, spur economic growth, and create new jobs 
in green industry. 
 
New Resolutions largely non-controversial 
-------------------- 
 
6.  (SBU) The slate of six resolutions taken up by the Commission 
was somewhat lighter than in previous years, with only two 
resolutions requiring substantive negotiation.  In keeping with 
ESCAP tradition, all resolutions passed by consensus.  Of the 
non-controversial resolutions: South Korea sponsored a resolution 
teeing up a high-level intergovernmental meeting on the final review 
of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012. 
Japan put forth a resolution calling for continued support of 
ESCAP's Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), which 
it hosts.  A Mongolia-sponsored resolution expressed general support 
for the Government of Mongolia to pursue establishment of a 
think-tank in Ulaanbaatar concerned with landlocked developing 
countries.  Finally, an Indonesian-sponsored resolution provided for 
 
BANGKOK 00001088  002 OF 003 
 
 
an increase in the membership of the Governing Council of the Center 
for Alleviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops Development in 
Asia and the Pacific (CAPSA). 
 
7.  (SBU) As at previous ESCAP sessions, Iran again submitted a 
draft resolution concerning its proposal to host in Tehran an 
Asia-Pacific Center for Information, Communication and Space 
Technology-enabled Disaster Management (APIDM).  Despite a 
resolution at last year's meeting that called upon Iran to revise 
its proposal to incorporate the recommendations of an independent 
consultant's feasibility study, the Iranian delegation provided only 
an oral intervention reiterating the priority its government 
attaches to the proposed center and promising full financial and 
in-kind support for its establishment.  As before, a substitute 
resolution brokered behind the scenes by the Secretariat was 
approved that deferred consideration of the APIDM proposal and 
repeated the invitation to Iran to resubmit it after incorporating 
the consultant's recommendation. 
 
8.  (SBU) Indonesia sponsored a resolution following on a December 
2008 meeting in Bali it convened in cooperation with the ESCAP 
Secretariat on "The food-fuel crisis and climate change: Reshaping 
the development agenda."  USDel engaged actively to steer the 
resolution away from what would have been an inappropriate ESCAP 
endorsement of the meeting's non-negotiated "Bali Outcome Document" 
and to correct language that inaccurately lumped together the 
diverse issues of global food and fuel price volatilities, the 
financial crisis, climate change, and sustainable agriculture.  The 
resolution calls for further analytic work by the Secretariat and a 
follow-on experts group meeting later in 2009 or 2010 to discuss 
regional progress in responding to the economic crisis and its 
impacts on development. 
 
9.  (SBU) Consideration in the Committees of the Whole of the 
numerous reports by the Secretariat and the subsidiary bodies of the 
Commission went largely uneventfully, with the exception of the 
question of the locations of three new sub-regional ESCAP offices 
(to cover East and North-East Asia, North and Central Asia, and 
South and South-West Asia) which had been approved by the UN General 
Assembly in December 2008.  Pakistan, South Korea, and Sri Lanka 
(all of which had offered to host a center) registered objections to 
the report of an independent consultant who had recommended Beijing, 
Almaty, and New Delhi be selected to host the new offices.  Other 
delegations, including prospective hosts China, Kazakhstan and 
India, urged timely establishment of the new offices but avoided 
directly confronting their rivals.  The Executive Secretary, 
pointedly noting an absence of consensus within the Commission, 
reaffirmed her intention to proceed with her own decision on the 
locations of the offices before the end of 2009, but she promised to 
take into account the views expressed and to "strongly consider" 
making site visits to each of the prospective host cities.  Although 
the disgruntled delegations insisted on extensive edits to the 
portrayal of their positions in the meeting report, none pressed for 
action on the floor to overrule the Executive Secretary. 
 
Most Contentious: What to talk about next year 
-------------------- 
 
10.  (SBU) The most contentious item in the Commission meeting 
proved to be the selection of the "theme topic" for High-Level 
segment of next year's meeting.  ESCAP meeting themes are largely 
pro-forma affairs, typically featuring long-winded speeches by 
ministers and very little actual dialogue, and in choosing the theme 
ESCAP has generally deferred to the preference of the government 
that will host the meeting (in this case, South Korea).  This time, 
however, a schism quickly developed between proponents of the topics 
"Low carbon Green Growth: technology and financing" (led by South 
Korea, with support from Thailand and Japan) versus "Towards a 
stable and supportive financial system for achieving the Millennium 
Development Goals" (led by Russia, supported by China and Turkey). 
Following more than ten hours of debate spread out over four days, 
the sides acquiesced in a down-the-middle compromise quietly put 
forward by the Secretariat through the Chair of the Working Group: 
"Addressing challenges in the achievement of the Millennium 
Development Goals:  -- Promoting a stable and supportive financial 
system; -- Green Growth or environmentally sustainable growth, 
including through technology and financing." 
 
11.  (SBU) The sixty-sixth meeting of ESCAP will take place in 
Incheon, Republic of Korea, in April or (more likely) May of 2010. 
 
12.  (SBU) The full texts of the resolutions and conference reports 
will be available on the ESCAP website at http://www.unescap.org/65. 
 
 
13.  (SBU) Comment:  Many ESCAP veterans observed that this was one 
of the easiest sessions in years.  The few areas of contention that 
 
BANGKOK 00001088  003 OF 003 
 
 
marked this meeting ultimately yielded to straightforward compromise 
or sputtered out on their own.  The final decision on the locations 
of the three new sub-regional ESCAP centers may again flare tempers 
if not handled delicately by the Secretariat and the Commission 
will, at some point, need to deal substantively with Iran's proposed 
disaster management center.  But delegates departed the UN 
Conference Center on April 29 in an upbeat mood. 
 
14.  (SBU) This cable was cleared by Daniel Balzer of IO/EDA. 
 
JOHN#