BOAO (China), April 21: Pakistan on Saturday identified energy security, assured supplies and environmental degradation as key concerns for Asians and suggested cooperation in trade, investment and human capital for an equitable growth and peace in the region.

Speaking at the plenary session of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference on “Asia Driving Global Growth” as one of the keynote speakers, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also called for peaceful resolution of regional and intra-regional disputes so that the new century could become an “Asian century”.

President of Philippines Gloria Arroyo, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Grameen Bank founder Dr Mohammad Younas were the other speakers. Ms Gloria said Japan, India and China were leading economies of Asia with high growth rates and India and China specifically seemed ready to lead the future economic scene.

Mr Aziz said Asian leaders should together ponder over challenges and said inequitable distribution of income, poverty and uneven demographics were some of the challenges. He said over 100 million people of Pakistan were below the age of 25, which was an enormous strength but the family size of 7-8 persons was a challenge. In some other countries, he said, economies lacked youths and were truly called aging economies. He said regional cooperation in human capital and balance between youth and the aging population would be beneficial for all.

He said there was a need that the Asian region conserved energy and diversified its sources, otherwise economic growth would be constrained. Also, he said, environmental challenges like climate change and global warming were threats and a joint effort was required to face the challenge.

Another key question, he said, was whether the region as a whole or regional economies were creating enough value of their assets, products and goods and services. Asian nations would have to create fast a value chain of low, medium and high-tech industries, acquire multinational companies in the world and develop brand names like the Chinese and Indian companies were doing in the developed world to get maximum value of their products, instead of dolling out precious profits to brand holders, he said.

Mr Aziz said the biggest question facing the Asian region was if the growth equitable? He said strength of economies could be achieved by ensuring political stability and security which in turn could only be maintained by equitable distribution of benefits and satisfying the needs of the poor and improving their conditions.