Almotamar.net - Meetings of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)'s 25th Ministerial Session have been kicked off in the Yemeni capital Sana'a on Monday and were attended by a number of international organisations.
In his opening address of the session Ambassador Bader Omar Al Dafa , the UN ESCWA Executive Secretary pointed out goals of the ESCWA in the realization of the regional integration which constitutes the cornerstone in enhancement of efforts of development in the region.
He also mentioned ESCWA works for determining the common issues for the facilitation of cooperation and integration among the member states especially in the area of achieving the growth goals for the millennium and funding development and cooperation among the countries of the south, encountering issues of environment and climate change as well as the crisis of world food.

Me Bader al Dafa thanked the Yemeni government for hosting the event and offering facilities to it, considering its convening the session in Yemen as an opportunity to help Yemen for overcoming the blocks it is facing and reduction of the acuteness of poverty as well as for achieving a tangible progress towards achieving development goals of the millennium. He also expressed his hope that the dialogue round on economic and social development would contribute to reach a formula and funding of projects of priority in order to enhance the sustainable economic and social growth in Yemen.
The UN official also said the ESCWA would work for offering investment services and programmes of training and building capacities in cooperation with the UN development team in Yemen in addition to the international and regional and Arab funds for meeting Yemen's needs as well as helping it score tangible progress towards the achievement of the development goals of the millennium, in addition to assisting it in integration into the Gulf Council Cooperation of the Arab Gulf states.
He also touched on the change of climate and the negative results and the world food crisis and the rise in prices of food materials and their social and political consequences especially on the poor and stressed the necessity of giving this subject what it deserves of interest as the region imports around fifty percent of its food needs. He indicated the importance of realizing a partnership between governments and the private sector, creation of job opportunities to ensure promising future for the youth, increasing the woman participation in the economic, political and social life and development of policies and strategies for limiting the negative impact of inflation and rise of prices.
It is to be mentioned that the agenda of the 25trh session held in the period 26-29 of this month includes the adoption and signing of the Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods in the Arab Mashreq. The agenda includes also considering the request of Sudan to join the commission and the reviewing of the report by the ESCWA Executive Secretary on activities of the Commission.