CROATIA'S AMBASSADOR SIMONOVIC ELECTED UN ECOSOC CHAIRMAN

ZAGREB, Jan 15 (Hina) - Croatia's permanent representative at the United Nations, Ambassador Ivan Simonovic, was on Monday elected chairman of the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the five chief EU bodies, the Croatia's Mission at the UN said in a statement Tuesday. In his address, Simonovic recalled that the start of Croatia's chairmanship over the ECOSOC was in correlation with the 10th anniversary of Croatia's international recognition, when, he said, UN helped Croatia in the first difficult years. He stressed that now, Croatia was helping the international community in solving global issues by chairing the ECOSOC. Commenting on the present situation, primarily after the events since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11 last year, Simonovic pointed out ECOSOC's role in ensuring that the globalisation process be a positive power for all developed countries, countries in the process of development, as well as countries in transition, such as Croatia. Speaking about the programme and priorities of the ECOSOC for this year, the Croatian ambassador asserted the importance of the issues of health, education and development of human resources, as well as further reform of the ECOSOC in consolidating the organisation's role as an active organ in the process of building peace and assistance in democratic processes in countries which had undergone conflicts. Simonovic concluded that the ECOSOC's success would be gauged not by the number of adopted resolutions, but how much people's living conditions have actually been improved. He stressed that in order to achieve this, assistance would be needed from ECOSOC members, all UN members, but also observer countries, with the help of the non-governmental and private sectors, as well as academic circles. (hina) lml