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Asian Civil Society Lauds UNCTAD’s XIIth Quadrennial Conference

Hanoi, 4th March 2008

During 6-7 March 2008, an august meeting of representatives from civil society organisations (CSOs) around Asia will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam to formulate a set of key messages for discussion at a Civil Society Forum, which will be held during the XIIth quadrennial meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XII) – to be organised in Accra, Ghana on 20-25 April 2008. Subsequently, these messages will be submitted to the UNCTAD for further consideration and incorporation into the future working agenda of this UN body.

This event, held under a project examining ‘Linkages between Trade, Development and Poverty Reduction’ by the renowned India-headquartered non-governmental organisation CUTS International (www.cuts-international.org), will be the first of its type in Vietnam, seeing not only CSOs, but also members of business associations, media, academia, government officials, representatives from international and inter-governmental organisations as well as the donor community around Asia, debating key issues pertaining to global development.

UNCTAD’s mandate is to promote development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. It is a forum for inter-governmental deliberations, undertakes research, policy analysis and data collection and provides technical assistance. UNCTAD recognises that civil society plays an important role in efforts to achieve sustainable human development and alleviate poverty. Dialogue and interaction with civil society organisations (CSOs) promote UNCTAD’s development role, impact and effectiveness.

The theme of UNCTAD XII is “addressing opportunities and challenges of globalisation for development”. Four sub-themes are:

  • Enhancing coherence at all levels for sustainable economic development and poverty reduction in global policy making, including the contribution of regional approaches;
  • Key trade and development issues and the new realities in the geography of the world economy;
  • Enhancing the enabling environment at all levels to strengthen productive capacity, trade and investment: mobilising resources and harnessing knowledge for development; and
  • Strengthening UNCTAD – enhancing its development role, impact, and institutional effectiveness.

Held in the context of Vietnam’s successful integration into the world economy, against the country’s rising profile in the international arena, the event should contribute civil society’s own perspectives on the development process, towards creating a more balanced and inclusive approach to the same.

This is also one of the main objectives of the aforementioned CUTS project – implemented over a period of four years (January 2005 to December 2008), with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands and Department for International Development, UK. It also manifests the policy relevance of international trade on poverty reduction and thus, helps in articulating policy coherence, in particular between the international trading system and national development strategies.

This Pre-UNCTAD XII Asian Civil Society Forum will be organised at the Fortuna Hotel, 6B Lang Ha, Ba Dinh, Hanoi. Press/media representatives are cordially invited to attend and report.

For further information please contact:

Que Anh Pham, 81 Chua Lang, Dong Da, Hanoi, Email: ap@cuts.org, Mob: 0986310179