Development has to be inclusive: Prime Minister at ASEM

Beijing, Oct 25 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said that development has to be inclusive, at his maiden speech at the 7th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), in Beijing on Saturday.

Describing sustainable development as one of the biggest challenges of present times, Dr. Singh said a lot of cooperative work is needed to transform it from a mere buzz word to an operational strategy for development.

He said, Asia is home to the largest concentration of the world's poor and poverty eradication at this scale requires a collaborative global effort to promote development and in particular to create job opportunities.

The Prime Minister also underlined that development strategies have to result in a fair, equitable and balanced distribution of the economic dividend.

While dwelling on environment issues, Dr. Singh said, the international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer and additional financing since the Rio Conference.

Dr. Singh favoured a global action plan to promote food and energy security as well as environmental sustainability.

He further said, dependence on fossil fuels is a cause of many problems for the developing countries and thus greater effort is needed to promote clean and renewable sources of energy, including nuclear energy.

The Prime Minister, while talking on combating terrorism, said there is need to continuously strengthen international cooperation to combat this menace and that all should join in the efforts to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism to justice.

ANI