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Mr. Chairman,
On behalf of the Pakistan delegation, let me congratulate you on your
election to preside over this important Committee of the General Assembly. May I
also felicitate the other members of the Bureau.
2. We also commend Under Secretary General, Mr. Nitin Desai, for his valuable
contribution to the work of this Committee.
Mr. Chairman,
3. For the past two years, global economic growth has slowed significantly. The
world economy now hovers between recession and a weak recovery. The United
States, long the engine of global growth, had witnessed the often predicted
market meltdown. In Japan, afflicted by a prolonged banking crisis, the
prospects of recovery--whether domestically driven or externally induced--are
not considered likely. Europe’s recovery also seems stalled by the limits on
fiscal stimulation imposed by monetary union, as well as an expensive
agricultural support policy and a generous social welfare system. Growth has
been sustained recently by some large developing countries, especially China.
But with Argentina in an economic and social crisis, and Brazil threatened,
prospects do not appear bright anywhere else.
4. Without growth in the world economy, development is not possible. The G-7
meeting in Washington last week was, therefore, right in focusing on ways and
means for the world economy to be restored on the path of steady and
non-inflationary growth. It is unfortunate, of course, that there are, at
present, considerable differences among the major economic players about the
correct actions which each of them must take to revive growth.
Mr. Chairman,
5. The developing countries are in double trouble. First, only 12 among 140 of
these countries benefited from the era of globalization when the Washington
consensus reigned unquestioned.
6. In the rapidly integrating global economy, the poorest countries, and the
most vulnerable groups within most countries have been increasingly
marginalized. The income gap, among and within countries, between the richest
and poorest, doubled over the past fifteen years. Per capita income declined in
forty developing countries during this period. While prosperity was enlarged in
some parts of the world, the number of people living in poverty increased and is
continuing to increase in absolute numbers. The rich are getting richer, the
poor are becoming poorer. This is not a promising augury for a stable and
prosperous global order in the 21st century.
7. A major part of the explanation for the asymmetrical evolution of the global
society is the inherent inequity in the international trading and financial
system:
the 50 years of exclusion of textiles and agriculture from GATT disciplines;
persistent tariff and other discrimination against third world exports;
the absence of measures to stabilize and arrest the secular decline in commodity
prices;
the growing control of profit-motivated multinationals over the flow of finance,
technology and knowledge;
the unequal distribution of international liquidity and investment finance--95%
to 5% between North and South--; the inadequacy and stagnation in mounting debt
burdens.
8. Unfortunately, there has been insufficient recognition of these underlying
macro-economic reasons for the failure of development in the developing
countries. Instead, there appears to be a conscious endeavour to focus on either
micro-economic problems encountered in the development process--illiteracy,
corrupt governance, inefficient aid utilization--to build an explanation some
would say, an alibi for the failure of development and the continuing rise of
poverty in most of the Third World.
Mr. Chairman,
9. There will be no sustainable development without development. Economic
growth, generated through investment and trade, is the indispensable
pre-condition for realization of the other two pillars of sustainable
development, social development and environmental protection.
10. Speaking at the UNCTAD Mid-Term Review, last May, Dr. Supachai, the new
Director-General of the WTO, listed six challenges for Development one,
globalization, which was not slowing but accelerating; two, the growing relative
importance of private flows versus ODA; three, Multinational Corporations, which
operate outside inter-governmental rules; four, the secular decline in terms of
trade of developing countries; five, the slow process of debt relief; and six,
making the new trade round work for the developing countries.
11. It is, unfortunate, therefore, that even after the launch of the Doha Trade
Round, free trade rhetoric has been accompanied by growing trade barriers. As
the UNCTAD Secretary-General has noted recently, developing countries are being
denied many of the policy instruments e.g. industrial support policy, higher
tariffs for weaker sectors, export incentives, agricultural support--that were
widely and successfully used--by the industrial countries.
12. Even the onus for sustaining the environment is being placed on the
developing countries. Poverty in the South is increasingly seen as a cause of
global environmental degradation. The concentration of wealth as the source of
environmental pressures, or indeed as one of the causes of global poverty, is
mostly overlooked.
13. Genuine globalization will require that the developing countries be properly
integrated into the global economic system; it will require opening the
developed countries markets to freer cross-border flows of goods, technology,
capital, information and people.
Mr. Chairman,
14. Over the past two decades, the international community has gathered together
at several conferences and summits, to deliberate upon the imperative of global
and equitable economic and social development. All UN Member States accepted the
Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, Millennium Development Goals, the Declaration of
the Doha WTO Conference, the Consensus at Monterrey on Financing for Development
and, most recently, the Declaration of the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable
Development. These consensus conclusions, in our view, constitute a pledge by
all our governments to abide by and implement the policy decisions, commitments
and action plans, which we have adopted at these conferences. The decisions and
declarations of these international conferences reflect a new international
consensus - a UN consensus that should replace the Washington Consensus and
constitute the basis for a renewed global endeavour to promote equitable global
socio-economic development.
Mr. Chairman,
15. It is now essential to secure adequate follow-up and implementation of this
policy commitments and action plans in various areas in an integrated,
comprehensive and balanced manner. This follow-up must be integrated to ensure
coherence and complementarity at the policy and programme level.
16. Secondly, this follow-up must be balanced so as to ensure that there are
equitable benefits for all countries and peoples, and that the gaps which
presently exist in income, poverty, life expectancy etc, begin to be reduced
progressively.
17. Third: This follow-up must be coordinated to ensure the efficiency of effort
and to avoid duplication and waste of resources and human potential.
18. As a first step, we believe that the UN Secretary-General may be entrusted
with preparing a document which identifies the policy decisions, commitments and
actions adopted in various areas by these international conferences. Such an
identification could serve as the base-line to assess the progress made towards
implementing these decisions of our Conferences.
Mr. Chairman,
19. We must also devise an effective mechanism to review, monitor and guide the
process of follow-up and implementation of this UN Consensus. It would be
recalled that resolution 50/227 of the United Nations General Assembly had
adopted a comprehensive decision under the title of "further measures for the
restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social
and related fields. In the context of the implementation of this resolution,
Pakistan delegation is circulating a Paper entitled Follow-up and implementation
of the economic and social policies, commitments and action plans.
20. The paper envisages the establishment of an integrated, comprehensive and
coordinated follow-up mechanism to review and monitor the implementation of the
outcomes of the major international conferences in economic and social fields.
We suggest that the major responsibility for the follow-up should rest with the
UN Economic and Social Council which has a mandate under the Charter to promote
coordination and coherence in the economic and social policies and programmes.
Substantive reviews in various areas, such as trade and development, financing
for development and sustainable development, could be conducted by Commissions
or Committees operating under the ECOSOC and the General Assembly. While the
Commission on Sustainable Development could readily assume the responsibility
for follow-up and implementation of the Johannesburg Summit and the Rio
Conference, we would need to create special bodies (Commissions) to follow-up on
the Monterrey Conference as well as the Implementation of Development Agenda of
the Doha Trade Round.
Mr. Chairman,
21. We believe that the specific machinery of such a follow-up mechanism could
be discussed in open-ended consultations involving all interested countries. The
Paper circulated by the Pakistan delegation sets out some preliminary thoughts
with regard to modalities, periodicity and location of meetings, membership of
the review bodies, nature of representation, participation by States, as well as
civil society and the private sector, and possible Secretariat support. The
paper foresees on overview and integrating role in the follow-up process for the
Economic and Social Council and the UN General Assembly.
Mr. Chairman,
22. In our view, such a comprehensive, coordinated and coherent follow-up
mechanism will enable us to transform the consensus achieved by all our
countries into action. The Pakistan delegation is confident that these
suggestions will evoke constructive responses from all our partners. We shall
shortly convene open-ended informal consultations to discuss the Paper and would
welcome the comments and views of interested delegations on it as soon as
possible.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.