'Growth must be humane'

'Growth must be humane'

JAKARTA (JP): National development programs should aim to
achieve growth in terms of quality as well as quantity, experts
from Asia-Pacific countries said yesterday.

"Economic growth is not an end, but a means to achieving human
development," the experts, taking part in a workshop to review
the 1996 Human Development Report (HDR), said.

The experts defined human development as including the
reduction of poverty and social deprivation, promotion of equal
access to opportunities and the achievement of full employment
and sustainability, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
office in Jakarta, which co-hosted the workshop, said.

The participants agreed that there was no automatic link
between economic growth and human development. "The link had to
be fostered by policy measures and a strong emphasis on equity,"
the UNDP statement said.

The Center for Information and Development Studies was the
workshop's other host. The two-day meeting was held to review the
report, commissioned by the UNDP and launched last week, which
found that the disparity between the world's rich and poor was
widening.

Rahadi Ramelan, the vice chairman of the National Development
Planning Board, gave the workshop's keynote address. Other
speakers included Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Director of the HDR Office
at the United Nations Development Program in New York, and Nay
Htun, Director of the UN Development Program Regional Bureau for
Asia and the Pacific. (14)