to the United
Nations
Permanent
Mission of Uganda Fax: (212) 687‑4517
New
York
ADDRESS
BY
HON.
ERIYA KATEGAYA
1
ST DEPUTY
PRIME MINSTEP/MINSTER
OF
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC
OF
UGANDA
AT
THE MILLENNIUM SUMMIT OF THE
UNITED
NATIONS
NEW YORK 8thSEPTEMBER,
2000
PLEASE CHECK AGAINST
DELIVERY
Your
Excellencies, Heads of State
Your
Excellency, Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary‑General of the
United Nations
This is a historic moment full of opportunities and
challenges. The last hundred years have seen tremendous development in Science
and Technology and man has made significant progress.. Yet at the same tune,
the majority of humid still does not enjoy this "progress" for a
number of reasons: one of them being `lack
of peace' and the other `poverty'.
We the leaders gathered here, have an obligation to
ensure that a conducive environment for Peace is created and sustained. We must
therefore deal seriously with the root causes of conflicts and act to prevent
these causes by promoting good governance and accessibility of opportunities to
every citizen.
The International Community must remember that the
most horrendous violation of Human Rights of this century, the Holocaust
against the Jews and the Genocide in Rwanda and Kosovo, were a creation by the
leadership that instigated ethnic
hatred and Religious intolerance. We must therefore,
collectively develop zero tolerance for such Leadership, In the words of United
Nations Charter, "Never Again "
must be "Never Again"
"Poverty" eradication is yet another
challenge we are faced with. The majority of people living in poverty, are in
developing countries. The well celebrated Globalization presents many
opportunities but, has always presented unfair terms of trade. In our view,
globalization has always existed. The era of slave trade where human beings
were exchanged for trinkets and whisky was a form of globalization, but an
unfair one. It was an exchange of value for no value. What, therefore is
needed, is fair terms of trade. However, fair terms of trade are not enough. On
our part, as developing countries, the era of being mere producers of raw
materials must come to an end. We must focus on adding value to all goods before
putting them on the market. This, in our view, is the only way everybody can
benefit from globalization and in the long run, eradicate poverty. We must work
to ensure that nobody continues to live in abject poverty. Globalization should
not leave any country or anybody behind.
HIV/AIDS: With respect to HIV/AIDS
pandemic, it is our experience that it is a multi‑sectoral problem which
thrives best in poverty. It is not surprising therefore,
that the most alarming rates of HIV/.AIDS infection are in sub‑saharan
Africa and Asia. Poor diet and poor/lack of medical services, contribute to
make the situation worse. Even where medical facilities are available, their
costs are so prohibitive that only a few privileged people can afford the treatment. There is therefore
need for a deliberate effort to make the cost of these drugs affordable. This
is our moral obligation.
Although, we would not like to advocate for debt
forgiveness per se, debt burden is a real problem because these resources
should be availed for investing in poverty eradication programmes, education
and health. We also need to mobilize new and additional resources to address
such issues as appropriate technological transfers, increasing agricultural
productivity and most urgently the industrialization of developing countries
and their transformation from largely peasantry societies to middle class
societies.
While
welcoming the G‑7s recent initiatives to significantly reduce the debt
burden of Highly Indebted Countries, the initiative itself is not a panacea for
the problems of development. The relief will provide the poor countries with
the fiscal resources to increase spending on poverty reduction programmes, but
the effective exit from debt problems will require the rich countries to open up their
Markets for exports from poor countries.
In the medium and long run, what will get poor
countries out of this aid/poverty trap is investment and trade. The private
sectors of developing countries must be promoted and strengthened. Therefore, developed
countries must fully open their markets.
However, countries should increase their production
capacity so that once there is market access, there are goods available for
supply. It goes without saying, that without the availability of goods, trade
is impossible. Countries cannot trade what they don't produce.
The lesson to be learned from our experience in
Uganda, is that Debt relief is necessary to free up resources for investment
and poverty eradication. But, if it is to be effective in improving economic
and social conditions in the poorest countries, it must be accompanied by sound
domestic economic and budgetary policies.
I thank you