I

STATEMENT BY SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE

(check against delivery)

Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to congratulate the United Nations Organisation for the initiative of organising this third United Nations Conference of the Least Developed Countries, having the objective of rethinking the International support measures to support the economies of the Least Developed Countries and its integration in the world economy, in order to guarantee living conditions standards, compatible with the human condition.

We would like to congratulate, also, the European Union for hosting and sponsoring this initiative, showing its Member States concern about the problems of development of the Least Developed Countries.

Mr. President,

The International Community has recognised in 1971, for the first time, a category of countries called Least Developed Countries. This classification was based in its lower income, insufficiency of human resources and vulnerability of its economies.

Almost thirty years after that recognition, the social and economical indicators of the time have suffered a deterioration, the number of LDC's has grown to 49 and we observe an expansion to other developing countries.

Many speakers before me, rightly talked about the multiple and complex causes of this situation. We fully share those conclusions. We think that the present models of development have no anchoring roots and are not compatible with prevailing reality, having reached the breaking point. In this conference we have the responsibility to think about new concepts, models and methods which should make the foundations of a new relationship era between poor and rich countries.

Mr President,

This event takes place at a very important moment for humankind in general and for the Least Developed Countries in particular. The globalisation era brought about new challenges and has introduced in the International Agenda the need for a new order, allowing human kind to benefit in a more balanced way from the great discoveries registered in the last century.

We have to acknowledge the effort made by the United Nations System, by the European Union and by some other countries to reach those goals. This Conference gives us an opportunity to commit ourselves to the objectives that we shall determine together to overcome the present situation.

Mr President,

The Programs of Action adopted by the United Nations Conferences of 1981 and 1990 about the LDC's, which should have given an answer to the economic situation of the LCD's, did not significantly reduced the poverty indexes and the under development of those countries. The objectives proposed by the Programs of Action have not been accomplished and that fact contributed to the degradation of the social and economical indicators.

In the case of Sao Tome a Principe, a small island country with 1001 square kilometres and 150 000 people, big structural problems inherited from the colonisation, the insular nature, the smallness of the interior market, the monoculture and the lack of human resources, together with the adverse international economic climate are the bigger barriers against a sustainable development.

The insufficiency of the means made available for the development of the productive sector and the conditionalities attached to it has contributed to the aggravation of the dependence relatively to the Official Development Aid.

This excessive dependence has limited our capability to define appropriate policies to address basic needs of our population and threatens the stability of the democratic institutions, the guarantee of the Human Rights and the preservation of the cultural values of the people of Sao Tome and Principe.

In this context the Government has made enormous efforts to assume the ownership of the developing process, to diversify the production and exports, improve the governance and the human resources basis. In this development process, an effort has bee made to involve the entire Society in the elaboration and definition c strategies and in the enforcement of the decisions taken.

The reduction of poverty is on the centre of the government's attention, not only by the provision of assistance to those who are more in need, but also in the conception of policies and mobilisation of means and resources, to ensure that everyone could have access to primary education, essential health care and better income.

In this regard the government has the intention to use the financial resources coming from the debt reduction in the HIPIC's initiative, to ease the difficulties in the social sectors.

Mr President,

In the nineties, unfortunately the International climate was not favourable to the Least Developed Countries in order to allow them to get beyond the barriers they have in the way to development, in particular the need of public and private capitals, investment in infrastructures, ease of external debt and the growing need of access to the external markets for the export of goods and services.

These constraints together with the marginalisation of our countries in the world economy threatens our capacity to implement in a sustainable manner policies to reduce poverty and stimulate economic grow.

Mr President,

One of the main objectives of this Conference is the adoption of realistic national and international policies and incentives to enable the sustainable development of the Least Developed Countries allowing their integration in the world economy. In relation to this, we would like to subscribe the declaration by the ministers of the Least Developed Countries adopted on the eve of this third Conference, emphasising, among others, the following points:

The need to invert the present tendency to reduce the flow of public aid to the development and the quick implementation of the objectives adopted internationally in favour of the LDC's, before two thousand an five;

A prompt and quick solution to the debt problem including the cancellation of the entire debt;

Promotion of the flow of direct foreign investment to LDC's;

Access to the markets of the developed world;

Quick agreement, in the fourth Ministers Conference of the World Trade Organisation, at latest, about the clear and simplified process to facilitate the accession of the LDC's to the WTO and the technical and financial assistance required to accomplish this objective.

From our side, we commit ourselves to include governance as an essential element of our development strategy.

Finally, we would like to stress the need to institutionalise an efficient and indepen0ent follow up mechanism with the authority and the required resources to perform the tasks needed to implement the program to be adopted by this conference.

Thank you for your attention.