President Arroyo will leave for Hong Kong tomorrow night to attend the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Asia Meeting, less than a week after a trip to Latin America and the United States.
It will be the first CGI meeting outside the United States and Asia’s most influential leaders will be on hand for the event.
Mrs. Arroyo, who had just attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in Lima, Peru, said that she will continue advocating for the interests of the poor and developing countries in the midst of the global financial crisis.
Interviewed by BizNews Asia magazine editor-in-chief Tony Lopez, the President said that she would serve as the voice for the developing and less developed nations just as she did during the Asia-Europe Meeting in China earlier this year and the recently concluded APEC summit.
The President said somebody has to point out to the world’s richest and developed nations that any program to address the current global financial crisis should always include the developing countries.
“In the case of the APEC summit and in the case of the ASEM summit, I said that while all eyes will be glued to the stock markets, we must never lose sight of the impact of the global crisis on the poor because they’ll have the biggest burden,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
“So any solutions should take them into account and any solutions should include the developing countries in seeking for resolution,” she added.
Spearheaded by former United States President Bill Clinton, CGI Asia comes at the heels of the annual CGI meeting in the US and will provide Asia’s leaders an opportunity to come together and take action to solve the region’s most pressing issues.
According to the website of the CGI, each CGI Asia participant must make a commitment to action, a new, specific, and measurable initiative that addresses a social, economic, or environmental problem of the member’s choosing.
For two days starting Tuesday, Clinton will engage a distinguished group of leaders in panel discussions and interactive working sessions, each of which will examine specific challenges and opportunities for action.
The meeting will focus on three primary areas of discussion: education, energy and climate change, and public health.
Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the President would also be advocating for the poor and vulnerable in the coming Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand in the middle of December.
“She has become a leader globally in the advocacy for the less privileged, the poor and the vulnerable,” Dureza said.
The Hong Kong trip of the President would be her ninth for the year.
In January, the President went to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum and stopped by Dubai on the way back to Manila.
This was followed by a visit to Hong Kong last March; the United States in June; China last August for the Summer Olympics; New York in September; China in October; Chicago and New York in November; and Peru, Colombia and Los Angeles last month.
– Marvin Sy