7 March 2011: The UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) co-organized a meeting of experts in Jakarta, Indonesia on the concept of “green economy” in East Asia and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The meeting, organized together with the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, and the Institute of Developing Economies Building, was aimed at building greater awareness of the issue and promoting the concept through an exchange of experiences in scaling up competitiveness and domestic innovation capabilities.

During the meeting, experts agreed on the need to take “green economy” as an important undercurrent affecting economic activities that would affect economic growth, industrialization pattern, and further regional economic co-operation and integration in South-East and East Asia. Participants at the meeting also demonstrated how enterprises and governments in South-East and East Asia need to rethink the development of industrial sectors’ competitiveness, export competitiveness, sustainable innovation and structural change, in order to sustain growth momentum in a “green economy.” They also agreed that the development of “green economy” and structural change are interdependent and proceed through their interaction. Consequently, in order to narrow the development gap in the region, there is a need for synergy between development priorities of South-East and East Asia countries and the implementation of, inter alia, energy efficiency, efficient resource utilization and development of regional markets for energy- and resource-saving products. [UNIDO Press Release]