Regional compact sought to boost trade to reduce poverty

The United Nations Development Programme has been coordinating global efforts at the country level in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Jakarta Post's Riyadi Suparno and Hera Diani interviewed Hafiz Pasha, UNDP regional director for the Asia-Pacific, to get his views on ways to scale up efforts to achieve the MDGs.

Question: In your perspective, what's the situation in Asia- Pacific countries in terms of achieving the MDGs? Answer: The region as a whole has always done quite well. It's the most dynamic region in the world. So, in all of our terms, certainly in terms of reducing poverty, we are more or less on target. But much of its achievement is attributed to countries like China and India, the big countries. Some of the smaller countries like least developed countries (LDCs), land-locked developing countries (LLDCs) and small islands developing states (SIDs) are not doing too well.

And among the different individual indicators, education and improvement of the status of women, particularly in educating them, they are not doing too badly.

The real problems are in the area of health, in terms of major diseases; we have now avian flu, early on we had SARs. HIV/AIDS is also becoming a bigger problem in Asia, and of course, maternal mortality, and then the environmental problems are becoming extremely serious.

We also have the extremely serious problem with energy which costs billions of dollars a day. Your country doesn't have such a big problem, but other countries, including my own (Pakistan), are in trouble.

So, it's a mixed performance.

About Indonesia, what do you think about our performance in achieving MDGs?

When the economic crisis hit East Asia, Indonesia was perhaps the worse hit country. The accomplishment in cutting poverty achieved in the decades before was wiped out in just a year. There has been some recovery since then. And I think now Indonesia has made much more progress in achieving the MDGs. But, I'm particularly concerned with the environmental problems, with pollution, sanitation and so forth; so, health problems as well. They are very serious.

Many countries in Asia do face problems in achieving the MDGs. However, this region seems to get less attention from the world leaders than, say, sub-Saharan countries. Why does that happen?

That's the whole purpose behind this ministerial meeting, "Don't forget Asia." We are very happy that the world is turning to Africa. But we have to realize that two-thirds of the world's poor are in Asia and you cannot neglect the poor here. There are 14 least-developed countries in Asia, 6 LLDCs and 9 SIDs. We also have the poorest countries in the world. Afghanistan, for example, is even poorer than sub-Saharan Africa.

So, the basic message we want to convey is that the international community should also support the poor people in Asia. We want to say that ours is a dynamic region, we'd also want to do things ourselves. So, we want to develop what we call a regional compact, that we want to solve our own problems.

Could you elaborate more on the regional compact?

Basically, we want to have regional integration. ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is the best example. Within ASEAN, there is a big development gap between the old members and the new members. There are very progressive, dynamic countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, but also we have some very poor countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. I think there is a need to focus on narrowing this gap, and focusing on the poverty in these poor members.

Also in South Asia, there is a very large concentration of poverty in countries like Nepal and Bhutan. So, maybe, there is a case for stronger regional integration through SARC (the South Asia Regional Coordination).

In addition, we have a number of big regional entities and rich developed countries.

So, the focus should be on trading arrangements, South-South cooperation, foreign direct investment from some of the more progressive countries in the region to the less developed countries. So, the scope of the regional compact in this region is quite substantive. But it needs political commitment.

You mention South-South cooperation in terms of trade. What about promoting trade with developed countries in the region?

What is happening to the more developed countries is that they are more interested in trading with the United States and the Europe rather than intra-regional countries. Poor countries, therefore, have had not really access to trade. That's why we are saying that we should focus on intra-regional trade. China is a big market, so are Southeast Asian countries. If they (poor countries) are given more access, they might do better.

Don't you think the regional compact which promotes intra- regional trade will undermine the multilateral trading system through the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

As long as the WTO makes some progress. If it makes progress then, you will have a nice, free trade, multilateral trading system, with the rules in favor of some of the poor countries. That will be wonderful. But if not, the least we can do is to focus on regional trade.

What about investment in the framework of the regional compact?

There is a new development with China starting to invest in many countries in the region. China has decided now in a sense to explore the potentials, establishing infrastructure facilities in some of the poorer countries.

Other countries should be doing it as well. Malaysia is doing it, South Korea is doing it, and Japan, of course, is the biggest foreign direct investor in the region, (but) especially China.

The focus of the regional compact is on trade arrangements. But what about problems regarding migrant workers?

They should be property regulated. For certain categories of workers, for example, in my country, we have temporary migration of nurses to the Middle Eastern countries, similarly from some other poor countries in East Asia like the Philippines. So, you need to regulate that, but not stop it. Regulate it, direct it better.