As an emerging economic powerhouse and a growing player on regional and global issues, China is able to play a leadership role in the common development of prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, a high-ranking UN official said on Saturday.

In an interview with Xinhua before her scheduled visit to China on January 17-23, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of ESCAP ( Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), said the major challenges now facing the region are different kinds of "imbalances", such as the issues of economic imbalance, social imbalance and ecological imbalance.

Heyzer, who is also under-secretary-general of the United Nations, said the region enjoys fast economic growth, but also has half of the world's population in poverty. "Uneven economic development in different parts of countries and between countries, growing inequality in income, the existence of poverty and social exclusion, the sustainability and pollution issue -- all need to be seriously addressed by the ESCAP and its members", she said.

The UN official said one of the areas ESCAP is known for is the area of "Green Growth", to which China has shown its appreciation, by integrating the approach in its 11th strategic plan for national social and economic development, and in fact setting a target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent by the year 2010.

"It is one of the examples that China can play a leading role through cooperation with the ESCAP, in helping the ESCAP addressing these challenges in the region", she said.

Heyzer said the ESCAP would like to see the partnership between the ESCAP and China be further broadened in the future, especially in the follow-up of the Bali conference last December on the global issue of climate change.

Commenting on China's progress in the past three decades, she said, "China is a big economic powerhouse. The target of 'halving the population in poverty', one of the 'Millennium Development Goals' that the UN has drafted for the common development of the world, is met mainly thanks to China."

She also noted China's achievement on South-South cooperation, that China has lent huge support to East Timor, Cambodia and Laos, and outside Asia, China has played a big role in the development of Africa.

"I would encourage China to continue its contribution and to be actually a major donor to the South-South cooperation, and to not just focus on bilateral level, but to use multilateral system to enable more countries to share the experience of China in this area."

Citing as an example of the impact of China's development in the region, she referred to an article she recently read which depicts how the cheap motorbikes produced by China in Laos have increased the assets of poor households, as well as allowing market access by improving connectivity to other parts of the country.

"My role as head of ESCAP is to identify different strengths of our member countries in order to move towards common sustainable development. I would like to stress that I really look forward to China's leadership role for the region to continue on the path to common prosperity." the ESCAP chief said.

China is a member of ESCAP, the regional arm of UN in Asia and the Pacific.

(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2008)