BOAO, Hainan, April 23 (Xinhua) -- A candidate for the next United Nations secretary general on Sunday called on the world community to pay more attention to the imbalanced global social development, particularly in Asia.

    Jayantha Dhanapala, senior adviser to the president of Sri Lanka, pointed out at a luncheon of the Boao Forum for Asia annual meetings that one-fifth of the world population are well-off while the other one-fifth still depend their lives on a daily income of less than 1 U.S. dollar.

    A report from the Asian Development Bank showed that Asia registered some 1.75 billion labors at the end of 2005, with some 500 million others suffering from underemployment or unemployment. The region will embrace another 245 million workforce in the coming decade, the bank predicted.

    "Future stability and growth will therefore depend on creating 750 million jobs in the next decade," said Dhanapala.
Dhanapala, also former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament, urged Asian nations to improve policies concerning corruption, food security, development of the rural regions and some other issues. Enditem