Third UN Conference on LDCs
1st Meeting (AM)
DEV/BRU/2
14 May 2001
THIRD
UN CONFERENCE ON LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES OPENS IN BRUSSELS; FRANCE’S
PRESIDENT SAYS WORLD’S POOREST ‘MUST BE HELPED’
The international
community could not just write off the fate of 600 million human beings –-
the world’s poorest countries must be helped, Jacques Chirac, President of
France, said this morning at the inaugural ceremony of the Third United Nations
Conference on Least Developed Countries, which is being held in Brussels from
14 to 20 May.
While the least developed
country (LDC) share of international trade flows might be small, what happened
to them affected everyone, he said. Helping
them was, therefore, part and parcel of good stewardship of the world’s public
assets. He stressed the importance
of debt relief and the need to increase official development assistance (ODA).
He also noted that the international community could not assist corrupt,
predatory or unethical regimes. In
conclusion, he said he was convinced that the LDCs would be the “newly emerging
countries” and proposed that they be called that, as a sign of hope and confidence.
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General
of the United Nations, said the people of the world’s poorest countries were
not asking for charity, but simply a chance to earn a living and support their
families. “We are here to give them
that chance”, he said. The LDCs would
like to join in the global market as both consumers and producers, and it
was in everyone’s interest for them to do so; however, they could not do it
without support.
“We are here to consider
what kind of support would be most useful to them and to make sure that they
get it”, he said. ”We are here to
develop new partnerships, through which to make development aid more generous
and effective. We are also here to
convince potential partners that the effort is worth making.”
Sheikh Hasina,
Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Coordinator of the Global LDC Community, underscored
that only through joint action and meaningful cooperation among partners could
the continuing marginalization of LDCs be reversed. Although the challenges faced by LDCs were
formidable, they were not insurmountable, and those countries should be able
to make progress in the not-too-distant future.
Human and institutional capacities
had to be built to make the people of the LDCs both the instruments and the
beneficiaries of change, she said. Tariff
and
non-tariff barriers obstructed trade opportunities
and should be speedily removed. “We
want an effective partnership between LDCs and their development partners”,
she said. The right course could end
injustice, deprivation, stagnation and the ever-growing marginalization of
LDCs.
Harri Holkeri (Finland),
President of the United Nations General Assembly, said Member States must
prove their true commitment to the goals of development, including the goal
of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. For that purpose, it was important to improve
market access for the LDCs and provide them with debt relief and assistance
for development. The programme of
action to be adopted by the Conference must be followed by action, he stressed.
Also speaking this morning
were Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden, Nicole Fontaine, President of
the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium, and Romano
Prodi, President of the European Commission.
King Albert II of Belgium
was also in attendance.
The Conference, which is
being hosted by the European Union, is expected to be results-oriented and
to reach agreement on concrete steps that will allow the 49 LDCs to reverse
their slide into marginalization and extreme poverty. Participants from all sectors of society will elaborate a programme
of action to address the problems facing LDCs and engage in interactive thematic
discussions on a variety of relevant topics.
Immediately following the
inaugural ceremony, Conference participants began an interactive debate entitled,
“The Challenge of Eradicating Poverty: International Community Response”.
[For background on the Conference, see
Press Release DEV/BRU/1 of 11 May 2001.]
Statements
KOFI ANNAN,
Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, for all too many people in
the least developed countries, life was a continuous struggle against hunger,
malnutrition, polluted drinking water, infectious diseases, ignorance, oppression
and violent conflict. They had not
chosen to live like that. They were
not asking for charity, but simply a chance to earn a living and support their
families. “We are here to give them
that chance”, he said. The LDCs would
like to join in the global market as both consumers and producers, and it
was in everyone’s interest that they did so.
Those countries,
he continued, could not do so without support. “We are here to consider what kind of support
would be more useful to them and to make sure that they get it”, he said.
”We are here to develop new partnerships, through which to make development
aid more generous and effective. We
are also here to convince potential partners that the effort is worth making.”
He said it was
the third LDC conference in 20 years. In
that time, the number of countries on the list had grown longer, not shorter.
Only one country had graduated from the list -- Botswana.
But, by a cruel twist of fate, that nation now saw its prospects blighted
by HIV/AIDS. It had the highest rate
of infection in the world.
He said the
Conference had been clearly planned to ensure that no source of ideas was
neglected, and that people with different roles and viewpoints listened to
each other. Moreover, it had been
designed to produce agreements, not only on targets, but also on precise mechanisms
for achieving those targets and for monitoring progress towards them.
Speaking on behalf of the
European Union, GÖRAN PERSSON, Prime Minister of Sweden, said that
it was an honour for the Union to host the event.
Fighting poverty was a moral question, for it represented a struggle
for human dignity and democracy. Poverty
was not rational. All progressive
forces understood that leaving people behind, in the reality of poverty, was
to throw away creativity and dreams for the future. The world was at a historic junction where global progress was within
reach. Never had the capabilities
been greater. Such an open window
of opportunity might not last forever. The
Conference should do justice to its cause and deliver instruments for the
eradication of poverty worldwide. On
the part of the European Union, he welcomed all those present to the Conference.
NICOLE
FONTAINE, President of the European Parliament, said that an alarm bell had
been sounded in the face of the world challenge to alleviate the suffering
of the poorest countries. The countries
of the world had failed to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment in the countries
that needed it most. There should
not be such an imbalance between the rich and the poor in the world. She expressed the wish that the Third World
Conference would produce practical results, completely overhauling the world
systems, opening the world markets without duties or restrictions, restoring
the flow of official aid, and allowing for debt eradication. Access to land, microcredit and development
of the countries’ infrastructure and education were of great importance, as
was the eradication of arms trade.
She went on to say that it
was not conceivable that the gap between the rich and the poor would increase
in the new millennium, leaving millions in poverty, hunger and disease. Such a situation should not be met with indifference.
Economic liberalization should take the human dimension into account.
The European Union would be expanding, taking in the States of Eastern
and Central Europe, but that should not be done at the cost of international
aid to the poorest countries. Europe
would be open to the countries of the world.
The European Parliament would track the deliberations of the Conference
with the greatest interest.
ROMANO PRODI, President of
the European Commission, said the cancer of poverty needed to be urgently
removed. It was the international
community’s responsibility to do that. The
European Community was keenly aware of its responsibility: with the Lomé Convention, the generalized system
of preference (GSP) and now the Cotonou Agreement, it had pioneered a truly
innovative approach to development cooperation, which successfully combined
aid and trade instruments. The Commission
had also drawn a five-year Programme of Action to fight communicable diseases
that severely affected the least developed countries. Among its other initiatives, the European Commission had also decided
to completely untie drug procurement from all other forms of development aid.
Aid was not the only weapon in the
war against poverty, however, he continued.
Debt relief and a fair trade policy were essential, too. The Commission was already, by far, the largest contributor to
debt relief managed through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative,
and now it was going beyond that. To
mark the occasion of the Conference, the Union had decided to forego payments
on all outstanding LDC obligations arising from special loans under earlier
Lomé Conventions. A groundbreaking
decision had been recently taken to grant duty-free access to all LDC products,
except arms. That meant that the poorest
countries would soon enjoy unprecedented access to their largest export market.
For those countries to take full advantage of the world trading opportunities,
they needed to be fully integrated into the world economy. Thus, they must have their place at the World Trade Organization
(WTO) negotiating table, and a genuine say in setting world trade rules. As it sought to launch a new trade round this
year, one of the priorities for the Union was to make globalization work for
the good of all.
The European
Community was determined to continue leading the fight against poverty in
the LDCs, focusing on a limited number of sectors for greater impact. Such sectors as education, health, gender equality,
food security and good governance were of the utmost importance. Good governance in all its aspects, including
democracy, citizen participation, respect for human rights and the rule of
law, would help to fight against poverty. Also, the fight against corruption must be at the very heart of
development policies. The Commission
would practice development cooperation in accordance with the principle of
mutual respect, giving priority support to partners that showed tangible commitment
to internal reforms. There would no
blank checks, but there would be constant dialogue.
Action
by the European Community could only achieve so much, he said. If poverty was to be truly eradicated, the
whole of the international community must commit themselves to joint
action. The Conference had the potential
to be truly landmark event in that respect.
SHEIKH HASINA,
Prime Minister of Bangladesh, said she was speaking on behalf of the
600 million people of the 49 LDCs who were engaged in the ongoing struggle
to overcome poverty and marginalization.
Bangladesh had been raising related issues of concern in various multilateral
forums. She underscored that only
through joint action and meaningful cooperation among partners could the continuing
marginalization of LDCs be reversed.
Many economic and democratic
reforms had been undertaken in her country, she said. Housing, education and health were all being
addressed. The main objective was
to achieve economic emancipation through poverty alleviation.
She said that, although the
challenges faced by LDCs were formidable, they were not insurmountable and
those countries should be able to make progress in the not-too-distant future.
Human and institutional capacities had to be built, so the people of
the LDCs could be both the instruments and beneficiaries of change.
Tariff and non-tariff barriers obstructed trade opportunities, and
should be speedily removed. Also,
the current market access being provided by the European Union was welcome,
and she hoped other major players would come up with similar measures. She cited Japan and the United States in that
respect.
The new programme of action
must succeed, she said. “We want an
effective partnership between LDCs and their development partners.” The right course could end injustice, deprivation, stagnation and the ever-growing
marginalization of LDCs.
Guy verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium,
said there were three major challenges: the
battle against HIV/AIDS; debt reduction; and the conflict in the central African
region.
He said the HIV/AIDS figures
were still frightening, despite major efforts by a number of institutions,
while the economic costs of the virus were horrendous. The idea of a United Nations HIV/AIDS fund
to collect $10 billion per year to fight the disease should, therefore, be
pursued. Yet, the virus could not
be combated, unless poverty was combated as well.
Regarding the debt of LDCs,
he said absolute priority should be given to those countries that were over-indebted.
Unless they were free of such debt, they could not move forward.
In that respect, as of 1990, a law was put in place in Belgium to cancel
the principal sums and interests owed by some States and foreign companies.
Over the last few months,
things had developed favourably in the central African region. He hoped that would lead to the full application
of the Lusaka Agreement. In resolving
the issues of that region, the legitimate interests of the related countries
must be taken into account. Foreign
troops must also be removed from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while
the inter-Congolese dialogue must be resumed.
He said specific measures
were needed to help the poorer counties reorganize their finances and give
them better prospects. They must also
be given real commitments and concrete mechanisms, so they could take their
future in their own hands.
HARRI HOLKERI
(Finland), President of the General Assembly, said that today marked
the opening of the first major international conference since the adoption
of the Millennium Declaration, which had reaffirmed the global goals of development
and the eradication of poverty. It
reflected a unique consensus on the values and principles of the international
community, representing the political will of Member States, which must now
prevail. Member States must prove
their true commitment to the goals of development, including the goal of halving
the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.
For that purpose, it was important to improve market access, provide
debt relief and ensure provision of assistance for development.
The programme of action to be adopted
by the Conference was extremely important for the Organization, he continued,
for it would demonstrate the commitment to declared goals and strengthen the
credibility of the Millennium Declaration.
Other conferences would follow, covering such subjects as small arms,
children, financing for development and human settlements. They had all been requested by the General
Assembly to address the main challenges before the international community
today. The current Conference could
set an example. Adoption of the programme
must be followed by action, he said. Member
States themselves had the main responsibility for implementing the decisions,
but a cohesive response from the industrialized countries was also needed.
Development cooperation and trade were of great importance.
Despite the fact that ministers of finance were conspicuously absent
from the Conference, he went on to express hope that those present would prevail.
Action by the North must have first priority, because the LDCs themselves
had already walked an extra mile, trying to implement the prescribed remedies
for their problems. The Assembly needed to be informed about the
contribution of its major conferences. It
was prepared to endorse the programme of action as soon as the Member States
made such a request.