Hanoi will host the very first conference on social impacts of the crisis in the Asia and Pacific region.

Entitled “The Impact of the Global Economic Slowdown on Poverty and Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific,” the September 28-30 conference will be held by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat, the Government of Vietnam, and the Government of China.

The meeting will focus on how policy makers can use the crisis as an opportunity to reform labour and social market systems to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth in the region, the ADB said in its press release on September 24.

ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda will join some 300 representatives of countries, civil society, academia and multilateral and bilateral development agencies at the event.

He will adress the function, together with such leading speakers as Vietnam 's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung; Director, Chinese Government’s Leading Group of Poverty, Wenkai Zhang; and ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Misran Bin Karmain, the bank said.

The bank estimates that had Asia's high growth not stalled over the past year, there would be 60 million fewer people living below the poverty line of 1.25 USD a day, and 100 million fewer “near-poor” (those vulnerable to poverty) living below the 2 USD a day line.

The conference is supported by ten partner organisations including the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI); the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID); German development cooperation agencies – the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and KfW Bankengruppe; the International Labor Organization (ILO); the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC); the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO)./.