THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
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OPENING
STATEMENT AT THE SPECIAL EVENT ON THE CHALLENGE OF ERADICATING POVERTY FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RESPONSE
THIRD
UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
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Brussels,
14 May 2001, 10.00 a.m.
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[SG takes chair at invitation of Mr. Göran
Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden and President of the Conference]
Thank
you, Mr. President.
I am
honoured to take the chair at this Special Event. It is an original way for us to start our conference, and a very
promising one. During this session,
Heads of State from the Least Developed Countries themselves will discuss their
problems, not only with donor governments and international institutions, but
also, in the same forum, with leading figures from business and civil
society.
That
prefigures the kind of strategic partnership we must have, if poverty is
indeed to be eradicated and truly sustainable development is to be achieved.
The
poor are seldom poor by choice. Very few people in this world enjoy living on
hand-outs. Most poor people know that
they are quite capable of earning their living by their own efforts, and are
eager to do so. But they must be given a
fair chance to compete.
That applies to
individuals. It applies to
companies. And it applies to countries.
All countries today need to
mobilise their own resources, and to attract investment from abroad.
Their ability to do that depends,
in the first instance, on the quality of their governance. Countries can only compete in the global
market if their people - women and men alike - enjoy the benefits of education
and the rule of law, with effective state institutions, transparency and
accountability in public affairs, respect for human rights, and a say in the
decisions that affect their lives.
So there is much that even the
least developed countries can do, and are doing, to help themselves. Many have made remarkable strides towards
democracy and sound economic governance, even in the midst of poverty.
But they are caught in a vicious
circle. Even more than others, they
need to attract foreign investment, since they have so little capital of their
own.
Yet they attract very little
investment, because their people are poor, their politics are often unstable,
and their domestic market is small. And
their people remain poor because there is no investment.
So the poorer the country, and
the smaller its domestic market, the greater its need to break out of this
vicious circle through exports.
And therefore, more than any other group of countries, the Least
Developed need open markets, in which their goods can compete.
More
fortunate countries have every reason to open their markets to products from
the LDCs. Their consumers would benefit
from wider choice and lower prices.
Their industries would benefit from the competition.
And,
by allowing poor people in poor countries to make an honest living, they would
contribute to a fairer and more stable world order.
Our hosts, the European Union,
seem to have understood this. By
adopting the "Everything But Arms" Initiative, without waiting for
reciprocal concessions from the LDCs, they have taken a step in the right
direction, even if on certain products it is going to be implemented rather
slowly.
I very much hope that other
economic powers will take similar decisions, and act on them faster. Only last September, after all, they adopted
the Millennium Declaration - which calls on them, preferably by the time of
this Conference, to adopt a policy of duty- and quota-free access for
essentially all exports from the LDCs.
As things stand, those exports
still face formidable barriers.
Agricultural tariffs still average over 40 per cent, and on some
products they rise above three hundred per cent. And then there are many non-tariff
barriers: not only quotas, but also technical barriers, which regulate the size
and quality of imports or require them to be labelled in a certain way. And of course there are health and safety
standards.
All of these are ostensibly
designed to protect consumers, and ensure that they know what they are
buying. I am not saying that is
unnecessary. But the requirements are
often absurdly complex.
Let me give one example: the European regulation on aflatoxins. A World Bank study has calculated that this
regulation costs Africa 670 million dollars each year in exports of cereals,
dried fruit and nuts.
And what does it achieve? It may
possibly save the life of one citizen of the European Union every two
years.
Please do not misunderstand me. I
am the last person to undervalue even one human life.
But here many African lives are at stake - the lives of those whom
the chance to export those products might save from an early death, caused by
malnutrition or endemic disease.
Surely these regulations need to be reviewed with a sense of
proportion! Surely a more reasonable
balance can be found.
I believe the best hope for LDCs, and indeed for the
developing world in general, lies in a new round of global, multilateral trade
negotiations. And this time it must be
a true "Development Round".
The new Round must aim to eliminate all tariff and non-tariff barriers in
the developed countries to trade in agricultural products, textiles and other
products of special interest to the LDCs.
And it should review the progress made in implementing agreements
reached in the last Round - the Uruguay Round.
After the Uruguay Round, developing countries found they had benefited less
than developed ones.
Many of them, as well as some non-governmental
organizations, feel that there should not be a new Round, only a reassessment
of the old. But, even if their
grievance is well taken, surely it is not correct to argue against a new Round. For a new Round is precisely the forum where
the necessary reassessment and adjustments can be undertaken. I urge therefore that all governments put
their weight behind the launch of a new multilateral Round of trade
negotiations, with all due dispatch.
Ladies
and Gentlemen:
So far I have focused on trade and market access,
because I am convinced that without trade LDCs will not attract investment, and
will not be able to grow.
But while market access is necessary, it is
certainly not sufficient.
If they are going to
export their way to prosperity, LDCs need many things they now lack. They need technology - especially
information technology. They need to
develop their physical, social and institutional infrastructure.
And they need help in overcoming
some appalling handicaps.
Many of them face acute
environmental constraints, as a rapidly rising population struggles to survive
on a shrinking area of cultivable land.
Many suffer from a chronic
health crisis, which debilitates and decimates their population - and which has
now acquired a new, even more frightening face: that of HIV/AIDS.
Indeed, in much of Africa, AIDS
is now far more than a health crisis.
It has become not only the primary cause of death, but
the biggest development challenge - and the same may soon be true in several
Asian countries, too.
At present, I am
making this challenge my personal priority.
I hope by the end of next month, when the General Assembly holds its
Special Session on HIV-AIDS, we shall have an agreed global strategy, and a
substantial global war chest, to confront this global scourge.
Many LDCs are also
handicapped by destructive conflict.
They need help in resolving their differences and rebuilding a peaceful
economy.
And many are still
crippled by debt. Everyone now
agrees that they must be relieved of this burden. But rich countries have not yet come forward with sufficient
resources to do it. Even the poorest
countries which qualify for debt cancellation under the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries scheme still spend more on repaying debts than they do on
healthcare.
Additional debt
relief will almost certainly be needed - deeper, broader and faster than what
has been given so far. And it must be truly
additional, not subtracted from funds already earmarked for development aid.
Because - and this
is my final point - those funds are much too small as it is. The developed countries have
long committed themselves, on paper, to giving 0.7 per cent of their gross
national product in development aid. Very
few have lived up to that pledge, and the developed world as a whole has
reached only 0.2 per cent.
During the 1990s - a
decade of unprecedented prosperity for most industrialised countries - official
development aid declined, and LDCs suffered disproportionately.
Unless governments
take their commitment to the 0.7 per cent target more seriously, they will have
little chance of meeting the new commitments they made at last year's
Millennium Summit. Let me remind you
that those commitments included pledges to halve the proportion of people
living in extreme poverty by 2015; to halt and begin to reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS by the same date; and to address the special needs of the LDCs.
I urge all developed
countries to meet the 0.7 per cent target – and within that, to allocate at
least 0.15 per cent of their gross national product to helping the LDCs, as
they promised to do at the last LDC conference in Paris, ten years ago.
Why do we have these
conferences, after all, if States do not follow up their fine words with action?
As you know, this
conference will adopt a Programme of Action, with a built-in monitoring
system. Let us use it to ensure that
this Conference, unlike its predecessors, marks a real turning-point in the
everyday life of poor people in the poorest countries.
Thank you,
ladies and gentlemen.
Now it is
my pleasure to give the floor to the President of the Conference, His
Excellency Prime Minister Persson