PERMANENT MISSION OF SINGAPORE
TO THE UNITED NATIONS
MR GOH CHOK TONG
PRIME MINISTER OF SINGAPORE
Mr and Madam Co-President
Our world is becoming
more globalised, yet at the same time more fragmented. Technological advances
have brought the world closer. But they have also opened up divides between
those who are able to cope with the resultant challenges, and those who lack
the capacity to do so.
2 We need to update and strengthen the United Nations,
to deal with these new problems, as well as the stubborn old ones. We need to do
so because no nation can tackle these challenges alone
.
3 I wish to highlight three areas
of concern in this regard.
4 First, the nation state is being redefined. The
power within states is flowing downwards and being localised in provinces and
cities. At the same time, state sovereignty is being circumscribed by regional
and multilateral
organisations. Furthermore, new actors
for example, global corporations, some of whom have larger outputs than
the GDPs of some member states, and NGOs, some of whom have more international
clout than some
governments are now a prominent and
integral part of international life. How do we engage these new power players
in a constructive way in the United Nations? What balance can we find between
the national role of sovereign states and the international mandate of multilateral
organizations ?
5 Second, there is growing empowerment of the market
in recent years. The financial industry holds more assets than the central
banks of the world combined. The value of our national currencies is determined
everyday by the market
rather than by our central banks. Three years ago, dramatic flows of volatile
short-term capital destabilised economies and wiped out years of hard work
in several Asian countries.
6 However, opting out of the global
market is not a solution. So how can the United Nations help developing
countries build the capabilities that will enable them to become part of the
new world? How can we help small economies maintain control of their destiny as
they liberalise and open up?
7 Third, globalisation and the knowledge revolution
will widen the income gap between countries, and hence create new tensions. Our
world risks being sharply divided between countries which are able to
take advantage of
globalisation and others which cannot; between countries with high education
levels and those which have low literacy rates; and between those which are
Intemet-savvy and those which do
not have access to even
the basic computer.
8 What can the United Nations do to help minimise
these new inequalities?
9 I offer one simple idea for a start. The United
Nations should provide the leadership within the community of multilateral
organisations to help the poorer nations develop the capacity to profit from
globalisation and the knowledge revolution. The United Nations, IMF, World Bank
and
several other
international organisations were created in a different era to deal with
different challenges. They need to be updated. Furthermore, these institutions
work separately, and not as a team. Today, however,
there is an imperative
for them to coordinate their efforts. They need to get together to assess what
competencies the poorer nations need to develop in this new era. They should
then put in place coordinated programmes to build capacity for globalisation
and the knowledge revolution. I call upon the Secretary General to institute
regular dialogues among the multilateral organisations to bring about such
coordination.
10 That said, however effective we
make the United Nations, it cannot by itself
solve the problems of the world
11 The onus is also on us, acting collectively within our regional
groupings, to help lift our own capabilities. Individual countries must also
have the national leadership and institutions to achieve stability, growth and
equity for their people.
12 In short, national unity of purpose, cohesive
regions, and a multilateral framework under the leadership of a rejuvenated
United Nations these are what will give
us hope and confidence for the 21st Century.