Mr. President:

RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

1. We hope this meeting will be known in History as the Responsibility Summit.

2. As the globe is warming in economic, social and environmental terms; at a time when terror is threatening cities and fear propagates in people's
    minds, we are gathered here in Johannesburg. We should congratulate ourselves on our endeavors to foster development rather than talking 
    about weapons. We came to face the crisis, responsibly.

3. It is no longer enough to pinpoint the culprits. The time to blame for the mistakes or unfulfilled promises is over. This is time for action. We
    have a responsibility with the future, with our children. Hunger is no longer satisfied with protests. Thirst must be quenched.

4. Although these tasks must be undertaken by all of us, the responsibility is differentiated. However, it is undoubtedly a shared responsibility,
    and those that do their share their implementation, shall be entitled to inherit the Earth for their people.

5. For us Bolivians, sustainable development has not merely meant the promised land, but has also become a path to follow. From our
    standpoint, sustainable development has four and not only three components. In addition to the economic, social and environmental aspects,
    we conceive a fourth dimension of sustainable development: the backbone of political sustainability. Institutionality. Citizen action. Popular
    participation. Governance. If some preferes, good governance. The governance that is good because it is legitimated from the bottom up and
    from the inside towards the outside.

6. Since the Rio Summit, we were the first country on the planet that created a Ministry of Sustainable Development. Today, almost 10 years
    later, my portfolio also includes Planning and coordination of the social and economic governmental areas. We have put into practice an
    integral and integrated vision. And it is sustained as a State policy.

7. We are also the first country in the world that has certified forests. One million hectares of certified Rain Forests and four hundred thousand
    hectares are currently being granted certification.

8. The first Article of our Constitution consecrates the principle of a multicultural and multilingual nation. It also ratifies the 169 th, Convention of
     the International Labor Organization. It acknowledges our indigenous peoples right to be consulted on the use of our natural resources. 

9. However, if policies that lack a program are considered blind, it is also true that the best models that lack power are irresponsible.

10. Bolivians and their democratic representatives have had the wisdom to build - in spite of, or maybe thanks to, the current difficult times - a
      new government that we have come to call the Government of National Responsibility. Responsibility with current and future generations.

11. Our aim is to grant increasingly more power to the people, over and above the power conferred to them by Popular Participation, National 
      Dialogues, Social Control schemes and the Poverty Reduction Strategy.

12. Empowerment to have things done. Empowerment to create. Empowerment to enable people to do. Empowerment to enable people to
      create. Citizen power. Believing in local capacities and strengthening them. Building capacities on the energy of people as actors of their own
      development.

13. A responsible community constitutes the basis of global sustainability. In Bolivia, many communities have responded to the trust deposited in
      them. We are supposed to strengthen the mechanisms to articulate the local endeavors with national and global issues. To promote
      concurrent actions at the private and public level, becoming a conveyor belt between local and global endeavors and vice-versa. A vehicle 
      driven by production: a productive transformation of the rural areas.

14. The international community must turn globalization into a circuit of opportunities rather than threats. A network of reciprocities and mutual
      obligations and rights. If our import duties are reduced by this is offset by foreign subsidies, the positive counteracts the negative and
      irresponsibility is fostered.

15. We believe that we have made good progress in the right direction. We disrupted the coca-cocaine circuit, but we have yet to close the
      virtuous circle of alternative development. We capitalized our state-run companies, but our neighbors became the victims of Washington's
      Consensus. We have become the sub-continent's energy core, but the environmental contribution of our gigantic gas reserves are still seeking
      a sustainable benefit. We have taken great steps in the area of human development, but this progress is still insufficient.

16. We are still lacking concrete markets, accessible technologies and a mechanism that actually rewards the enormous environmental efforts
      made by out productive sectors and governments. At this Summit we are advocating for a good governance of the international threats, in
      order to minimize the negative impacts on our internal plans and needs. So the responsibility of the communities requires also a global
      answer, including financial, commercial and ethical foreign responsibilities.

17. When we fight against corruption we also expect corporate responsibility and transparency. When we create conditions for direct foreign
      investment, we expect more reinvestment than remittances. When we pay environmental costs, we demand cooperation.

18. Without responsibility from all and for all there is no sustainability, Mr. President. The Implementation Plan that shall emerge from
      Johannesburg shall also become our responsibility. We should call it Responsibility 21, as a renewed commitment to accelerate the
      implementation of Agenda 21 . We shall contribute our share to that plan. We have done it since Rio, and we shall continue doing so, with
      zeal. We shall invigorate it under the Millennium Goals. We will struggle mainly to reduce extreme poverty by half by the year 2015. To attain
      this, it shall be necessary to establish a sustainable alliance based on inter generational responsibility.

19. In this sense, allow me to conclude by extending an invitation, especially to our brothers in the Americas. During the past decade Bolivia
      organized the Sustainable Development Summit of the Americas. By the year 2005 many of our nations shall be implementing their
      sustainable development strategies. Our practice has led us to articulate them with the poverty reduction strategies. My country would be
      most pleased to host this event once more and become the venue of a renewed articulation effort for the Americas in 2005, as a pragmatic
      benchmark to put in practice the agreements reached in South Africa. 20. Your country is beautiful, Mr. President, and your call of attention
      to the world regarding the issue of social apartheid in the Planet, has been clearly listened. Bolivians, our parliament and government and this
      delegation, with a significant presence of indigenous people, wishes to express a special recognition to your example and the efforts deployed
      by your people.

21. We are taking with us a lot more than a mere mission. The message of South Africa is one of integration. It is against exclusions of any
      nature. The United Nations played a key role in putting an end to the pit of colonization, or the fall of the Berlin wall. Hopefully today's
      multilateral effort is going to be remembered in years to come as the beginning of the construction of the bridge between the haves and the
      have nots.