Economic development must return to centre of UN agenda, panel chair says

Economic development must be brought back to the centre of the United Nations agenda so as to eliminate such "soft terror" issues as hunger, disease and environmental degradation, the chairman of the General Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee said today.

"Soft terror issues must be addressed since they are a threat to international peace," Ambassador Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury of Bangladesh said at a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York. He added that his committee would make the subject of development "relevant to the larger world" as an extension of its economic development work.

A recent panel discussion arranged for the committee focused on corporate responsibility and Nobel Economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz would address the committee tomorrow on economic growth and development cooperation, he said.

Ambassador Chowdhury called on the United Nations to make trade a tool of development and to become a collator and disseminator of best practices for transforming societies. The major questions facing the world centred less on money than on the ability to absorb change and bring about transformation, he said.

Video of press briefing