Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Monday countries in the Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus still need to do more in overcoming poverty and malnutrition, improving tertiary education and fighting epidemic disease of AIDS.
In a statement issued prior to a regional meeting on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Central Asia and Southern Caucasus, ADB said these countries' efforts to achieve some MDGs have slowed or even regressed, although they have achieved some of the MDGs related to carbon emissions, primary education and partly also drinking water and sanitation.
But major problems remain in income poverty, malnutrition, access to tertiary education, HIV/AIDS, the environment, as well as soil and water management, said ADB.
Armin Bauer, a Senior Economist at ADB, said special attention needs to be given to the non-income poverty indicators related to early childhood development, affordability of health and new lifestyle related diseases, social protection and water and soil management to address environmental poverty.
ADB praised the region for having achieved full primary enrollment, but said progress needs to be made in improving tertiary and vocational education to make them more affordable for the poor and more relevant for labor market needs.
An MDG Forum for Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus will be held on July 19-20 in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, with the support of ADB and United Nations Development Program. About 100 high- level government officials, members of civil society, donors, media and academy from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are expected to attend the forum.
Neighboring regional cooperation countries such as China, Iran, Mongolia and Russia have been invited by ADB and UNDP as observers.
Source: Xinhua
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