Dr Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary: A sense of mission and responsibility for ESCAP in the new millennium

Dr Kim Hak-Su is the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), appointed to the post on 1 July 2000. Dr Kim, a prominent economist, served as the Ambassador for International Economic Affairs of the Republic of Korea before joining ESCAP. He has extensive experience in central banking, development planning, private sector management as well as international organizations. He has also served as the President of the Hanil Banking Institute and Secretary-General of the Colombo Plan Secretariat. Dr Kim shared with us his vision for and views on ESCAP on the occasion of his new appointment.

What is your vision for ESCAP during your term as Executive Secretary?

I would like to focus on three key areas. The first is for ESCAP to become a leading centre to promote best practices and models for poverty alleviation in the Asia-Pacific region. I have asked our Division directors to identify best practices in poverty eradication, and to experiment with these as pilot projects in different environments--transitional economies, less-developed and landlocked countries. The aim is to find out whether and how these practices can be applied in different country contexts in the Asia-Pacific region. I envision ESCAP developing a "poverty eradication model" in some form, which we can offer to member countries and areas. This work is central to ESCAP's mandate given that 800 to 900 million of the world's 1.3 billion of the world's poor live in Asia and the Pacific.

The second is to strengthen the position of developing countries to respond positively to the challenges of globalization. The fact is that the majority of developing countries are becoming weaker and weaker in their positions arising from the process of globalization. I would like to find practical ways to assist these countries in such areas as improving trade and environment negotiations skills, and information technology,including bridging the "digital divide". These are critical areas where developing countries, particularly the disadvantaged economies, in Central Asia, the least developed, island developing states and landlocked countries, are being left out.

The third area I would like to emphasize is the need for ESCAP to detect and tackle rapidly emerging economic and social problems in the region. One good example of this is the initiative of the Human Resources Development Section to focus attention on the issue of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and youth in Asia and to undertake intercountry programmes to support governments in addressing this problem.

ESCAP's mandate is to promote economic and social development in Asia and the Pacific. What do you see as ESCAP's comparative advantage in doing this work?

ESCAP's comparative advantage is in its multidisciplinary capacity and its emphasis on promoting economic and social development through regional cooperation among its membership. There is no other comprehensive intergovernmental organization dedicated to this work in the Asia-Pacific region. We should achieve a "synergistic effect" by combining and utilizing the multi-disciplinary in-house expertise. There are challenges in how to use and inter-link this expertise in a more harmonious way. To maximize the multidisciplinary potential of ESCAP, I am holding interdivisional and intra-divisional meetings. I am encouraging divisions within the secretariat to work together on joint intersectoral projects, and to exchange information on a regular basis. These meetings have been well received, and I intend to pursue this further.

Aside from this, I also feel that ESCAP provides a useful framework for co-operation among the different sub-regions within Asia and the Pacific. We are now undertaking new initiatives related to the Greater Mekong Subregion, BIMST-EC[1] and SPECA[2]. I also want to develop similar subregional efforts for the Pacific island developing countries.

I also see a comparative advantage in the work of ESCAP's Social Development Division. The Division has well esta-blished and well-recognized programmes related to disabled persons, human resources development, particularly for youth, and women in development.

Our work in sectors such as environment, energy, transport and statistics, are also well-established areas of comparative advantage for ESCAP. These areas can be further strengthened. However, we should not be complacent; there are also new and emerging demands and issues, which we need to tackle as well.

There are many United Nations agencies working in Asia and the Pacific, and most of them are undertaking country programmes. Can you talk about the value-added of ESCAP's subregional and regional work, as compared to country-level programmes?

Yes, I can take as an example, the Human Resources Development Section's programme for youth, in particular the recent initiative to promote cooperation among countries in combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and youth in Asia. ESCAP's approach to addressing this problem has been comprehensive, with activities -conducted at the national, subregional and regional levels. The outcome of our country level work has provided a basis for inter-country comparison as well as cooperation. Best practices in particular countries were showcased and served as models for further replication on a wider scale. Hence, the value of subregional and regional work was very evident.

ESCAP as a United Nations body, is also well placed to raise national and regional awareness of broad-based issues and problems. We are not confined to a single-sector approach, nor are we limited to looking at matters through a specific prism, unlike some specialized agencies. Hence, ESCAP has a clear role to play in promoting regional cooperation in a much broader and inter-related context.

You have identified poverty alleviation as one of your main priorities for ESCAP. Could you give us some further thoughts on what role you see for ESCAP in this area?

Many agencies are working on poverty alleviation, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For instance, UNDP is currently looking at poverty alleviation from the point of view of governance. ADB and the World Bank are providing funds to developing countries for employment and income-generating projects, small enterprise development as well as programmes in the education and health sectors.

ESCAP's role in poverty alleviation has to be different and unique to the work of other agencies. Our role should be policy-oriented, and my desire is to offer developing countries options or "models" for poverty alleviation. Rather than financing programmes, ESCAP's role should be to provide member countries with ideas, innovative approaches and strategies.

This is the premise for ESCAP's work to identify and promote best practices. As best practices are not applicable to all contexts, ESCAP needs to experiment with these in different environments, and assess the reasons for their success as well as failure. Our mission is to offer options to countries. It is then up to the individual countries to decide which options are applicable in their own contexts.

The member governments of ESCAP have identified human resources development (HRD) as a key strategy for poverty alleviation. What do you see as the most pressing HRD concerns in the region?

The ESCAP region is highly diverse and, hence, countries are at different levels of human resources development. I have an interest in human resources development, particularly through my past experience as Secretary-General of the Colombo Plan Secretariat, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Colombo Plan focused particular attention on human resources development, from the perspective of provision of higher-level postgraduate education for government officials and policy makers in the region. I believe this training contributed tremendously to the development of the region.

However, the range of HRD issues varies to a large extent in the Asia-Pacific region. The fact that a substantial proportion of people are still illiterate points to a need for more investment in basic education in some countries, as a means of building a foundation for higher education and training. A lesson that can be learnt from the Republic of Korea, where I come from, is the importance of attaching value to education. There is tremendous enthusiasm for education in the Republic of Korea, and all families try to put aside money for their children to go to school. This "education fever" was one driving force that led the population to become literate.

However, it is not enough to create demand and access to education. The issue of quality and relevance of education is equally important. Educational reforms are needed to promote more analytical thinking and creativity in the students. Learning by rote, which is the norm in many countries in Asia, is not conducive to promoting independent and critical thinking.

The concept of HRD is also changing. Once referred to as "institution-building", today "capacity-building" is the more commonly used term, shifting the focus from institutions to people. I would like to go a step further, to call it "capability-building". We need to think about how we can assist in upgrading the capabilities of people, enabling them to take advantage of opportunities, make their own decisions and set their own priorities. I therefore welcome training as a means of investing in the people for capability-building.

Given the growing strength of civil society in the Asia-Pacific region, what role do you see for non-governmental organizations and the private sector in ESCAP's work?

The Secretary General of the United Nations has placed great emphasis on strengthening linkages with civil society, and I believe there is a need for ESCAP to intensify its work in this field. In the United Nations, we sometimes use the terms "civil society", "private sector" and "NGOs" interchangeably. But there are certain differences in my opinion. NGOs are pursuing many universal values, such as the protection of the environment and human rights. They are not profit-oriented, and generally work as close partners with the United Nations.

Partnership with the private sector is a different challenge; the question is how to tap their resources for development and make this partnership attractive to them. A first step could be for the United Nations to offer them tax exemption for financial contributions. We also need to let the private sector become more involved in decision making. An example could be in the field of information technology (IT), where we could collaborate with the private sector in deciding how and in which countries they should be investing. I would like to explore this next year.

Another potential partner for ESCAP are academic institutions, both within and outside the region. I would like to encourage closer collaboration and strategic alliances with centres of excellence in the region, particularly in the sharing of technical resources. There are numerous centres in the -region that we can tap, such as the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo. They are, for example, currently working on the topic of corporate governance an area ESCAP is working on as well. There are also many other research centres in the region that ESCAP could collaborate with.

What do you plan to do to enhance the visibility of ESCAP as an institution in the Asia-Pacific region?

It is our task and challenge to change ESCAP. Firstly, we need to enhance its relevance to our member countries. My first priority will be to attract the interests of the capitals. ESCAP needs to have good programmes so that member governments in their capitals can become more interested in our work.

We also need to create an identity for ourselves, and focus on core areas of competence. We need to find our niche. One area is in the identification and promotion of best practices in decentralisation; another is in the environmental area. I have just attended an environmental ministerial conference, where I discovered that of the 15 cities in the world with the highest level of air pollution, 13 are in Asia. We urgently need to do something about this, including through promoting cooperation among local authorities, civil society groups and the private sector.

I would also like to focus on infor-mation technology. A crisis is emerging in the developing countries in their attempts to keep up with rapidly -changing communications and the Internet. As a start, some thought is to secure approximately 1,000 computers from either the Republic of Korea or Japan, and give these to ESCAP's focal points in the region, including ministries of social welfare, transport and trade. And then perhaps we can provide our counterparts with computer skills -training. I am thinking about sending "Internet youth volunteers" to the different countries to assist in this.

There are many efforts in the region to promote IT, and opportunities for ESCAP to provide its expertise. One area, where we have a comparative advantage, is the interpretation and translation of locally relevant materials for "e-commerce", "e-governance", "e-wireless" and "e-smart villages" in remote and rural areas. UNOPS has agreed to collaborate with us on this.

I would also like to see ESCAP pay more attention to the role of the mass media in promoting our work. We need to clearly identify our clients and be more client-friendly. We need to enhance the visibility of ESCAP in the region and also in Thailand where we are based. I will be visiting universities in Thailand to promote more awareness of ESCAP and the United Nations. We also need to develop a higher profile of ESCAP through more media coverage of our work.

Would you like to add any last words for our readers?

I think ESCAP has great potential. We also face a big challenge, and ESCAP is at a crossroads. We will have a turnover of over 60 per cent of staff in senior -positions in the next four years. We will fill these posts with highly competent and committed individuals, to enable ESCAP to rise to higher levels of excellence. We are at a critical juncture and I have a strong sense of mission and responsibility. I will do my best to turn ESCAP into a more relevant and responsive institution that can better meet the challenges of the new millennium.

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