Medal - 1st Asian International Trade Fair 1966 Bangkok

Reverse

Symbols of international trade surrounded by legend.

Lettering:
1ST ASIAN INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR, BANGKOK, THAILAND
1966
- PEACE AND PROSPERITY THROUGH TRADE COOPERATION -

Edge

Plain

Comment

originally issued in leatherette box

ESCAP, the UN’s regional Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, includes sixty-two member or associate member countries, covering some 60 percent of the world’s population. It was founded in 1947 as ECAFE, the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, with just nine members, of which six were developed countries and only three were countries from the region. This imbalance reflected the colonial status of most countries in the area at that time. The status of Japan as an occupied power (until 1952) was also unusual. Thus, at ECAFE’s first session in Shanghai, only ten member countries were present, four from Asia (China, India, the Philippines, and Thailand) and six from outside (Australia, France, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States). ECAFE’s name was changed to ESCAP in 1974.
...Regional cooperation in international trade, industry, natural resources, transport, and communications have all been economic areas where ECAFE has taken initiatives. In 1966, ECAFE organized the first-ever Asia Pacific International Trade Fair jointly with the Thai government. A trade promotion center was created soon afterwards within ECAFE. The Council of Ministers has taken many initiatives for encouraging intraregional trade, including establishing an Asian Clearing Union in 1974 and exploring proposals for an Asian Reserve Bank.
http://www.unhistory.org/briefing/20Asia.pdf