At the fourth Preparatory Committee held in New York, January 2002, for the International Conference on Financing for Development, opposing perspectives were presented by different Members States on the components and reforms required to harness the financial resources necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Excerpts from official statements highlighting these different views are presented below.

United States Edited from the statement delivered by Ambassador John D. Negroponte, United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Distinguished Co-Chairman, fellow delegates: President Bush said in his address to the World Bank last July, “A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day is neither just, nor stable.” In the spirit of the President‘s remarks, the United States approaches this conference as a moral and political as well as an economic challenge.

Development requires liberty, it requires fairness, it requires openness, it requires compassion, and it requires the recognition that the domestic private sector – not national or foreign governments – is the most efficient, powerful and reliable source of future growth any country can have.

The United States therefore believes that a major theme of the Financing for Development Conference should be that major domestic resources are the basic foundation for a country’s development. During the past forty years, countries that have successfully promoted their economic growth and development have done so through improvements in their domestic economic policy environments and openness to trade. This means a commitment to increased private investment, increased institutional capacity, political and economic stability, regulatory transparency, and a level playing field for all market participants.

In the 1990s, for example, the World Bank found that those developing countries that integrated with the global economy enjoyed a 5.1 percent increase in per capita income. Those countries that did not integrate suffered a drop of almost 2 percent in their per capita income growth. In a word, commerce and trade are the linchpins for development.

It is domestic private capital and open markets that provide the major muscle to move societies into the modern world, but where domestic resources are too constrained to achieve near-term success, developing countries must do the right thing to tap foreign sources of funds. Again, the major sources are in the private sector.

Japan Edited from the statement delivered by H.E. Mr. Minoru Kubota, Special Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs

Mr. and Madam Co-Chairpersons, distinguished delegates, In my view, to secure financing for development, developing countries themselves must above all exercise ownership. Without it, cooperation by development partners will never bear fruit. Through its ODA programme, Japan has extended support to those countries that have acted on the basis of the principle of ownership. Japan regards education, especially basic education as a priority area in the development of social infrastructure and the achievement of poverty eradication and sustainable development. The starting point, however, should be for developing countries to do their utmost to promote development.

The outcome document should contain realistic and achievable recommendations. The quality of the outcome document will have an impact on the reputation that the United Nations has won in the area of development. In this regard, let me emphasise that in our discussions on specific subjects such as international trade, finances, debt and aid coordination, we should respect the expertise of specialised organs such as the World Trade Organisation, the Bretton Woods institutions, the Paris Club and OECD-DAC.

Venezuela Edited from the statement delivered by Ambassador Milos Alcalay, Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations and Chairman of the Group of 77

Chairperson,
The Group of 77 and China have always underlined the cardinal principle that countries have the primary responsibility for their economic development. Domestic resources are the principal source and the primary means to finance development activities in any country. Nevertheless, in a globalised world where interdependence has become a prominent factor, the most important and major factor in mobilising domestic financial resources for development is the need for a supportive and conducive international environment.

Trade is the most important and multidimensional mechanism for almost all developing countries to mobilise and expand their resource base, both domestic and external, for financing for development. Trade is also the major instrument for integration in the international economy. The Group of 77 and China believes that an open, rule-based, transparent and non-discriminatory and predictable multilateral trading system is an essential component for the global economic system and would contribute profoundly to world economic growth and to the smooth integration of developing countries into the world economy.

The Group of 77 and China believe that development has a direct relation with trade and it should be substantially addressed in institutional arrangements and trade negotiations. Trade barriers, subsidies and other trade distorting measures particularly in agriculture, textile and steel have adverse impacts on the ability of many developing countries to exploit their comparative advantage and seriously constrains their ability to mobilise necessary resources for development. They should therefore be abolished.

The Group of 77 and China believes that as an urgent priority, ODA should be increased to the annual equivalent of 0.7 percent of GNP of developed countries. The ownership of development assistance by the recipient countries should be ensured and the developing countries should control the design, implementation and evaluation of development assistance programmes.
External debt is a crucial challenge for almost all developing countries. Some mechanisms and measures have been introduced to mitigate the adverse impact of external debt on developing countries. Nevertheless, evidence clearly indicates that there are grave shortcomings in the existing international initiatives for resolution of debt problems of developing countries. These shortcomings need to be addressed.

The Group of 77 and China would like to underline that enhancing the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems in support of development should be a paramount objective of the financing for development process. We firmly believe that a major challenge before the world community is to construct an international financial system that is responsive to the priorities of growth and development on a global level, particularly in developing countries, and that is geared to the promotion of economic and social equity.

For the full text of these statements, go to: www.un.org/esa/ffd/delPC0102.htm

Bangladesh Edited from the statement delivered by H.E. Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations.

The International Conference on Financing for Development will be an event of crucial importance for developing countries especially for the category known as the least developed countries (LDCs). People of the LDCs, who constitute over 600 million, survive on the margins of existence, most earning less than US $1 a day and who are structurally unable to mainstream themselves into the development process.

The UN Conferences of the 1990s including the Millennium Conference have sought to reduce poverty by half by 2015. This aim, though grand, is achievable. But for this we will need concerted action by developed and developing countries, and governments and civil society. International commitments, including those in the areas of ODA, debt relief, FDI inflows, market-access and capacity building, must be kept.

Clearly, poverty alleviation continues to be and must indeed be the main focus of our work in combination with social and human development. Like other developing countries, the LDCs remain seriously cash-strapped. A massive increase of public and private capital flows to these economies is essential. The Millennium Declaration, which recognised this, also includes the commitment to grant more generous development assistance, especially to those that are genuinely making efforts to apply their resources to poverty alleviation. The Secretary-General in his report on the work of the organisation to the current General Assembly stressed the pivotal roles of agriculture, institutions and institutional change in the development process. These also need to be incorporated into the Financing for Development outcome.