29 November 2001: The Asia-Pacific Roundtable on Sustainable Development and the High-Level Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 27-29 November 2001.

The Roundtable and Regional Meeting were attended by over 190 representatives from 46 Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) States, two associate members of ESCAP, four non-ESCAP UN member States, and over 220 representatives from UN agencies, multilateral financing institutions, NGOs and other stakeholders.

The Regional Meeting produced two outcomes: a Chair’s Summary of the Roundtable; and the Phnom Penh Regional Platform on Sustainable Development for Asia and the Pacific, which includes a regional assessment of Agenda 21 implementation, key issues and priorities for sustainable development, follow-up actions, and financing for sustainable development. Delegates engaged in marathon negotiations that stretched early into the morning hours on the last day to produce a Platform that many described as perhaps the best of the products coming out of the five regional preparatory meetings for the WSSD.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin outlining these discussions in detail can be found at: http://enb.iisd.org/linkages/2002/wsasi/