UNITED
NATIONS  GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
STATEMENT BY
THE
PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
H.E. MR JULIAN R. HUNTE AT
THE
SPECIAL
HIGH-LEVEL MEETING WITH THE
BRETTON WOODS INSTITUTIONS AND THE
WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (WTO)
UNITED
NATIONS HEADQUARTERS
26 APRIL 2004
Madam
President of ECOSOC, Madam President of Finland, Distinguished
Minister, Mr Secretary-General, Excellencies, Representatives
of Inter-governmental Organisations, Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Our
Mission at the 2002 Monterrey International Conference
on Financing for Development was clear - to objectively
review the full range of issues on financing for development
and to frame an effective strategy to address these issues.
The developing countries were to be the particular focus
of our initiatives. It is pragmatism and cooperation,
I believe, that account for our successes, embodied in
the Monterrey Consensus.
This
Special High-level Meeting of ECOSOC with the international
financial and trade institutions has as its theme, "Coherence,
coordination, and cooperation, in the context of the implementation
of the Monterrey Consensus". This calls to mind Monterrey's
focus on coherence, and its viewpoint on the essential
need for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to be among
those organisations playing a critical role in the area
of financing for development.
For
the first time, the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD) is participating in this high-level
meeting. We have therefore added an important player to
the group of key organizations whose cooperation with
United Nations principal organs - the Economic and Social
Council and the General Assembly - and input into the
Monterrey process, is critical to the success of our initiatives.
All
stakeholders - Governments, international institutions,
civil society, and the private sector - committed themselves
to the goals and objectives of the Monterrey Consensus.
Encouragingly, the partnerships we created then have remained
intact, and this augurs well for our capacity to deliver
on the Consensus. It was these partnerships that ensured
a frank and open exchange on the progress we had made
at the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development,
convened by the General Assembly in October 2003.
I commented during the High-level Dialogue on our "mixed
report card" on the implementation of the Monterrey
commitments. The persistent and critical issues requiring
further and urgent attention are therefore well know to
us. We know, for example, that numerous developing countries
have made determined efforts to create an enabling environment
for foreign direct investment, including through strengthening
democracy and democratic governance. For many, however,
foreign direct investment has not been forthcoming.
In
any event, foreign direct investment cannot in and of
itself help developing countries to implement national
strategies and policies to meet their development objectives.
Further, the reduction in the levels of Official Development
Assistance (ODA) in recent years has shown that this is
not a source of development financing on which developing
countries may rely. Other effective development financing
strategies are required to improve development financing
and prospects.
International
trade is a key element of the international development
framework. This is a point which I emphasised two days
ago in my address on the Commonwealth Secretariat-commissioned
"Stiglitz Plan" at a meeting jointly hosted
in Washington D.C. by the Centre for Global Development
and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The World Trade Organization
(WTO), therefore, must be a key stakeholder in our development
financing initiatives.
For a majority of developing countries, trade can only
become an engine to drive growth and development in a
dynamic and fair multilateral trading system. Every indication,
including developments at Cancun, underscore that we are
not yet there. We are, for example, far from reaching
resolution on the issue of special and differential treatment,
be it in respect of LDCs, landlocked developing countries,
or within the wider context of small economies, for Small
Island Developing States (SIDS). Regarding the SIDS, this
is a matter which will no doubt receive additional focus,
in the run-up to the SIDS+10 Review meeting to be held
in Mauritius in August/September of this year.
Debt,
of course, continues to be an immediate, short and long-term
challenge to many developing countries. Those grappling
with serous debt burden are finding it difficult to confront
dramatic decline or stagnation of their economies, and
to meet the legitimate expectations of their people. In
the current global economic environment debt cancellation
- particularly for HIPC countries - might be a better
strategy than debt maintenance, for putting indebted developing
countries on the path to sustainable development.
I
am pleased to note that the three critical factors I have
mentioned above - aid, trade and debt - taken together
with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), will be
discussed in detail in the roundtables of this High-level
Meeting. Regarding the MDGs, some would say that the targets
set in the Millennium Declaration are highly ambitious.
If we are to silence the sceptics, we must make a determined
and urgent effort - through advocacy, mobilization of
resources and capacity building, in particular - to effectively
review the targets for 2005 with a view to improving our
prospects for success in meeting those of 2015.
My
hope is that we can all agree, soon, to a consensus resolution
on the convening of a high-level event in 2005, which
would give impetus to our target-implementing and review
initiatives for that year, and for subsequent years.
Development
challenges are multifaceted and highly complex, and do
not fit neatly into their own discrete boxes - they are
interconnected. The integrated approach we took to development
financing and development generally in Monterrey underscores
this point. Coherence is about maintaining the integrated
approach across concerned organisations and groups, to
ensure, through coordination and cooperation that our
common objectives and complementary interests converge
for the best possible results.
In
short, each of the organisations engaged in this Special
High-level Meeting should, within its mandate and taking
into account its comparative advantage, contribute towards
ensuring that development issues are viewed and addressed
comprehensively, and that the action take is consistent
with Monterrey. This, in my view, will be one of the most
important aspects of the work of this Special High-level
meeting.
I wish to join in welcoming the President of Finland and
Ministers to this High-level Meeting. Presidential and
Ministerial participation in this meeting and the further
discussion by Ministers at the High-Level Segment of ECOSOC
later this year of the President of ECOSOC's summary of
this meeting sets a firm foundation for further work and
gives political underpinning to the critical work that
must be done to ensure coherence, coordination, and cooperation,
in the context of the implementation of the Monterrey
Consensus.
Needless
to say, the Economic and Social Council, in accordance
with oversight responsibilities and the General Assembly,
in accordance with its policy setting role as the sole
universal organisation of the United Nations, and recognised
as such in the Millennium Declaration, must also play
a critical role in the delivery of the commitments of
the Monterrey Consensus.
There is a growing sense of urgency, particularly in the
developing world, that the international community needs
to move more quickly to assist with national efforts for
poverty eradication, sustainable economic growth, sustainable
development and for a more equitable global economic system.
I say to this Special High Level meeting that given the
urgency with which most developing countries view these
matters, nothing short of a "sustainable development
offensive" will do.
I
thank you
|
