ASEAN urged to spend more on social safety nets
ASEAN urged to spend more on social safety nets
MANILA (AFP): The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) was on Saturday urged to spend more on social
safety nets following the severe financial crisis that hit in
1997.
"When the welfare and future of our suffering peoples are at
stake, we can not afford to be miserly and frugal," Philippine
Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales told delegates at an
ASEAN ministers meeting on rural development here.
Morales, who is chairman of the meeting, asked the ministers
to tell their governments to make "spending for safety nets" a
permanent fixture of their respective budgets to help the
region's millions of rural poor recover.
"As our concern in this meeting is rural development and
poverty eradication, this means restructuring our national
budgets and moving major allocations in the direction of social
development initiatives that are focused in the rural areas,"
Morales said.
"Whatever form the strategy takes, it is important to act
quickly and decisively. Let me reiterate, the poor and
disadvantaged can not and will not wait," he added.
He noted however that any response should be "comprehensive
and innovative" and require strong commitments from each country
and aid donors.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ministerial meeting, which is held every two years, also
discussed close technical and economic cooperation among members.
President Joseph Estrada in his keynote speech said that while
members were slowly crawling out of the crisis, most of those
living in the rural areas still suffer from lack of food, basic
services and infrastructure.
ASEAN countries he said experienced a "rude awakening" to the
"reality that our rural poor have become poorer."
Estrada also called for closer cooperation in the form of
capital infusions, which he said were necessary if the
countryside poverty in the region is to be eradicated.