Li Honggui, a member of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), issued the warning on Thursday at the first plenary session of the7th General Assembly of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD).

Li urged all countries and regions, and Asian developing countries and regions in particular, to attach more importance to the role population plays in sustainable development.

"Many Asian countries have achieved growth and development at the expense of long-term degradation of the environment and overuse and overexploitation of natural resources," Li said, warning that these countries will suffer from "great constraints in the areas of population, natural resources and environment".

"In these countries, poverty leads to population growth and environmental deterioration, and population growth then leads to further poverty and environmental deterioration. Then, the deteriorating environment makes the poor even poorer," he said, adding that such "a vicious cycle" has obstructed sustainable development in many countries.

Li's views won widespread applause from the participants of the AFPPD session. Xu Shuyun, director of the Asia and Pacific Division of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said the answer to the question "Is sustainable development possible without a population focus?" is "a simple, self-evident and an emphatic 'No'".

The greater the pressure exerted by overpopulation, the more mouths to feed and provide with basic amenities like safe drinking water, housing, sanitation and clothing, not to mention education, livelihood and healthcare, he added.

Statistics show that the world's population has reached 6.2 billion, with over 3.7 billion living in Asia alone. Every year, some 77 million are added to the global population, and by 2015, another one billion people will have been added to this total. The bulk of this growth is taking place in developing countries, mostly in the world's poorest countries, including those in Asia.

Jyoti Singh, former deputy executive of the UNFPA, said the link between population and sustainable development was neglected by the international community for various reasons.

Fortunately, some Asian counties have carefully considered population as a factor in the formulation of their sustainable development strategies, said Li Honggui, noting that China has implemented family planning and reproductive health programs as an important component in its sustainable development strategy.

According to Li, a coordinated development strategy encompassing population, natural resources, environment and ecology is the essential objective of sustainable development. Population plays a fundamental role in achieving sustainable development.

"By slowing down population growth, the pressure of population on natural resources and ecological environment can be reduced and financial resources can be re-channeled to fund programs on poverty alleviation, the environment and the improvement and enhancement of education, so as to break the vicious cycle called "poverty, population growth and ecological degradation'", Li concluded.

In a related development, the AFPPD 7th General Assembly also held its second and third plenary meetings, discussing the topics of HIV/AIDS control and gender partnership in Asia.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2002)