Saturday May 6 2006
HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday favoured a comprehensive framework for security in Asia to ensure that the process of economic development was not derailed by the threat of terrorism.
Addressing the 39th annual Board of Governors meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) here, he said that besides terrorism, the threat to environment, energy security, food security and regional imbalances were some of the key challenges faced by Asia, which had become an engine of global growth in recent years.
He said that the region should be mindful of other challenges that many countries faced and they included regional stability and security, and the challenge of ensuring equity, social justice and regional imbalances in the growth process.
He said that all Governments were facing domestic challenge in ensuring that growth process was socially equitable and regionally balanced.
The under privileged sections must be helped to become partners in progress and attention must be paid to reduce the income gap between the rural and urban areas.
"We must proactively address the imbalances that may have emerged in the process of rapid growth which must be done in a frame work of participatory democracy,” he said.
In his remarks, Union Finance Minister and Chairman of the ADB’s Board of Governors P Chidambaram expressed confidence that the Asia Pacific region will meet the challenges ahead and continue to grow towards greater prosperity and opportunity.
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