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MONTERREY,
Mexico -- UN Secretary General Kofi A. Annan
arrived in Mexico Tuesday saying a global deal
on development
assistance was on the table at the UN's International
Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey.
A UN spokeswoman said Annan had arrived in the
country on Tuesday and was scheduled in the city
of Monterrey on Wednesday. Annan, who will address
heads of government and other representatives
from an estimated 170 nations around the world,
said
in a message that over 1 billion people making
up one fifth of humankind currently live on less
than $1 a day.
They
are people who go to bed hungry and who do not even
have water to drink without grave risk of disease.
Eighteen months ago, he said, the political
leaders of the world agreed at the Millennium
summit that they should use the first 15 years
of the 21st century to begin major onslaught
on poverty. This was why President George W.
Bush, other leaders and ministers, business
leaders, foundation executives and nongovernmental
organizations were meeting in Monterrey this
week.
"Leaders from the developing world will
also be there," Annan said. "They
are not asking for handouts. They know that
they themselves must adopt the right policies
to mobilize private investment from their own
citizens and from abroad. They have to embrace
the market, ensure economic stability, collect
taxes in a transparent and accountable way,
fight corruption, uphold the rule of law and
protect property rights. "What they do
ask is a fair chance to trade their way out
of poverty, without having to face tariffs
and quotas or to compete against subsidized
products from rich countries. Many are also
asking for relief from unsustainable debts.
And many are saying that, in order to do without
handouts, they need a helping hand up, in the
form of increased aid from wealthier countries," he
said.
Praising the
announcements by the European Union and the
United States that they will
allocate billions of extra dollars to help
alleviate poverty, Annan said the amounts pledged
would, however, still not be sufficient. "All
economic studies agree that, to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals, we need an increase
of at least $50 billion a year in worldwide
official aid-a doubling of present levels," he
noted. Annan's announcements suggested that
the argument, in principle, had been won. All
governments accepted that official aid was
only one element in the mix, but an essential
one. Aid today, he said, was much more effective
than it was 20 years ago, for a number of reasons.
More of it was focused on building up the capacity
of recipient countries to run their own economies,
and less was tied to the business or geopolitical
interests of the donor countries.
"If that global deal is clinched in Monterrey
this week, many more girls in Africa, Asia,
and Latin America will go to school," Annan
said.
"Millions
of children will grow up to be productive
members of their societies, instead
of falling victim to AIDS, tuberculosis or
malaria, and the world as a whole will be much,
much better off."
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