BEIRUT: Nadim Khoury, deputy executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, said that numbers and statistics are insufficient to measure development.

Speaking on behalf of ESCWA executive secretary Rima Khalaf at the release Tuesday of a new report on the Millennium Development Goals, Khoury emphasized that the document, entitled “Millennium Development Goals: Towards Comprehensive Inclusive Development,” included new concepts for measuring development.

He also highlighted that the Arab Spring had added to the responsibility of governments, international organizations and individuals to find a path toward national development.

Khoury described the report as a program stating the primary developmental goals for 2010-2015. He added that Arab states have achieved different levels of developmental progress in the past decade.

“If we are living in a globalized system ... this means that the international community and the global economy are primary partners in any success or failure both on the global level and on the level of underdeveloped countries,” he said.