PRESS BRIEFING BY UNCTAD SECRETARY-GENERAL ON PREPARATIONS FOR 2001 UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNCTAD SECRETARY-GENERAL ON PREPARATIONS FOR 2001 UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), briefed correspondents today at Headquarters on the preparations under way for the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which is scheduled to be held in Brussels from 14 to 20 May 2001.

Mr. Ricupero, who is also the Secretary-General for the Conference, said the event was different from other conferences held by the Organization because it would focus on a particular category of countries. The 48 least developed countries (LDCs) -- which represented more than 10 per cent of the world's population (more than 600 million people) -- were among the poorest economies in the world. They accounted for only 0.5 per cent of global trade and investment flows, and in many of them there were people surviving on less than $1 per day.

In addition, he said, the international community had a credibility problem when dealing with the LDCs. For example, only 25 of the 48 countries had been identified when the first conference had been organized. That number had grown to 42 at the next one and stood at 48 for the upcoming one. Only one country -- Botswana -- had been able to graduate from the original list of LDCs.

The growth could, in part, be explained by the fact that there were countries which had faced recent dilemmas, such as endemic civil war and the scourge of HIV/AIDS, he said. Of the 48 LDCs, 33 of them were in sub-Saharan Africa, he added.

There was now an increasing sense that to close the credibility gap, the international community needed to redouble its efforts to provide LDCs with at least the minimum requirements for progress, particularly official development assistance (ODA), debt relief and meaningful market access. It was difficult to explain the resistance in granting LDCs full market access, as they represented no threat to global trade.

Mr. Ricupero pointed out that the investment capacities of the LDCs were in jeopardy because market access and trade concessions were not the only factors to be considered, but also supply -- their ability to offer goods and services. Some of those countries had enjoyed the benefit of reduced tariffs, especially those that enjoyed the benefit of the Lomé Agreement of the European Union, which was about to be renewed. However, frequently, they did not have the productive capacity to take advantage of that offer. It was hoped that the Conference would produce concrete results as its host, the European Union and associated States, also provided about 66 per cent of ODA to the LDCs.

He said that while the General Assembly had mandated UNCTAD to be the secretariat in charge of preparations, the entire United Nations system -- including the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO) -- was involved in the actual proceedings. It was only the third time that the

Ricupero Briefing - 2 - 25 July 2000

United Nations was meeting to discuss those LDC problems and, at the event, evaluations would begin on achievements of the previous two conferences and decisions made on future action.

The Preparatory Committee was currently in the process of discussing how the objectives of the Conference could be met and how the efforts of the international community, both the donor countries and others, could be harnessed, he noted. The Committee hoped to identify areas that would produce early results to be able to fight the pervading pessimism that had emerged because of the credibility gap which had been developing over the past 20 years.

A correspondent asked about the usefulness of convening such an event. Mr. Ricupero underscored his earlier statement that the Conference would be a contrast to previous ones held by the Organization. If there was a similarity of activities, the credibility gap could expand even further. The Conference would be results-oriented and innovative. Among the ideas being proposed was an "early harvest", which was an attempt to identify, before the Conference occurred, the practical contributions of different States and international organizations, and to announce that those had already been effected at that event.

It was easy to envisage those contributions, he noted. For instance, the WTO had been discussing for a number of years the possibility of granting full market access to the LDCs. Even if that goal could not be met by next May, some results were expected. Many ideas were being addressed. For example, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a region in which there were three LDCs -- Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar -- had been discussing methods for alleviating the problems of LDCs. The declaratory documents about general goals were important, as they provided the framework for concrete initiatives and implementation.

Could LDCs be enabled to manage their situations? another correspondent asked.

Mr. Ricupero said that the efficiency of the administration of such countries needed to be strengthened. Improvement was already evident in a number of LDCs, including Bangladesh, Mozambique and Uganda. Many of them had been extremely courageous in undergoing a difficult process of adjustment and were performing well. However, they were also affected by outside factors. For example, Bangladesh and Mozambique had recently fallen victim to natural disasters. Moreover, one of the reasons for their place in the category of LDCs was because they were more prone to such situations, which were out of their control. Consequently, they needed increased foreign aid.

Another correspondent asked Mr. Ricupero to outline the reasons for UNCTAD's failure to solve the problems of the LDCs.

He said that there were numerous factors, including external ones related to the economic environment, the decline in ODA, the accumulation of debt and the decline in commodity prices over many years. On the other hand, there were problems being faced by the countries themselves, such as mistakes made when

Ricupero Briefing - 3 - 25 July 2000

developing economic policies and civil war. One such case, Angola, was not an LDC when the first Conference was convened, but had joined that list because of its production subsequent to its civil war.

The United Nations could be held responsible for its failure to persuade the international community to do more for LDCs, he said. However, the Organization did not have that power. The UNCTAD had been established to conduct research and analytical work, and to organize conferences to promote consensus-building in solving the problems of the LDCs. There was usually consensus; however, many countries did not honour their commitments.

He said it was unfair to blame the Organization for the actions of those States. Furthermore, UNCTAD did provide sound economic arguments -- it was able to prove why the inclusion of LDCs would not unduly affect international trade. It did not, however, have the power to force countries to agree in negotiations in the WTO. The United Nations believed that as it presented good ideas with sound arguments, both international and domestic pressure, including from non- governmental organizations and the media, could be built to accommodate the LDCs. While the outcome in Brussels should herald some positive changes, those related to the market axis would have to be influenced by WTO deliberations.

Another correspondent asked about the conclusions of the UNCTAD reports to be presented at the Conference. Mr. Ricupero said that those reports would indicate that the external economic environment had not been favourable to the development of the LDCs despite globalization and liberalization.

* *** *