Asia-Pacific development needs $600 bn

Addressing a high level meeting of over 50 countries in Indonesian capital Jakarta on Monday, Kim Hak-Su, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific told the participants that they must review the option quickly.

The governments in the region, he stressed, must intervene with radical measures to address rising inequality, high levels of youth unemployment, and work quickly to rescue the 130 million children working instead attending school.

In a statement read out by Kim, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the delegates to sustain the momentum generated by last September's World Summit in New York.

An energy strategy with emphasis on energy efficiency, outstanding trade issues arising out of the Doha Development Agenda, exploitation and cross-border trafficking of women and the AIDS epidemic are high on the agenda of the meeting which will seek ways to energise the region's economies amidst the threats of natural disasters.

In his statement, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said infrastructure development must be in line with the principle of "infrastructure for all" in order to be meaningful.