Bangladesh elected to four governing councils of UNESCAP’s regional institutions

Bangladesh has been elected to the governing councils of all four regional institutions of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, or UNESCAP, for the years 2022-25.

It is the only country besides India to get elected to the governing councils in all four regional institutions of UNESCAP, the Embassy of Bangladesh in Bangkok says in a media statement.

The four regional institutions are the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) based in Makuhari, Japan; the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT) located in Incheon City, Korea; the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (CSAM) situated in Beijing and the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) headquartered in Tehran.

The election was held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand as well as at the ESCAP Subregional Office for the Pacific, Suva, Fiji, and at the UN Compound, Beijing, China simultaneously.

This victory is a “glaring evidence” of how the Asia-Pacific leadership values Bangladesh’s leadership in this largest UN organisation, read the embassy statement.

It also reflects “confidence in our development model” which is progressing in an indomitable spirit and even showing great resiliency from shocks of COVID-19 and has started a turnaround at a great pace, according to the statement.

Through the membership in the governing councils of these institutions, Bangladesh will have the opportunity to advise on the institutions' programmes and also in finance, and in other administrative matters and would likely get more focus in terms of capacity building, technology transfer, skill development in the area of ICT, agriculture, statistics, science and technology, and disaster management.