Poorest nations fail to benefit from globalisation
TURKEY: Representatives from the world’s least developed
countries and UN experts drew a bleak picture of the impact of
globalization on poor communities at the start of a two-day conference
here.
“Paradoxically, as some countries get more integrated and prosperous,
others get more marginalised and isolated,” Harriet Schmidt, director of
the UN Office for developing countries, told the gathering.
“This is the sad reality for the least developed countries (LDCs).
While globalization has, over the last 30 years, expanded trade,
increased economic output and created unparalleled wealth in global
terms, the LDCs have failed to reap its benefits,” she added.
According to UN-set criteria, 50 countries qualify as the world’s
least developed nations, compared to 25 in 1971.
Thirty-five are in Africa, 10 in Asia, five in Oceania and one in the
Caribbean. Among them are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Gambia, Sudan and Mauritania.
They account for 12 percent of the world’s population, and attract
less than two percent of global foreign direct investment, most of it in
the sectors of oil and gas exploration and mining.
The picture is even worse in trade: the share of LDCs in world
exports fell from 3.0 percent in the 1950s to 0.7 percent in the 2000s
while their share in agricultural exports dropped from 3.3 percent in
the 1970s to 1.5 percent in the 1990s.
“If the global force of globalization continues on the path of the
last 30 years, it will completely sweep away the LDCs,” Schmidt said.
Documents drawn up by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) list domestic
factors such as illiteracy, lack of infrastructure, urban explosion and
desertification that have prevented LDCs from taking advantage of
globalization.
But several officials addressing the conference, sometimes in a
bitter tone, argued that the system of globalization should be
completely reshaped.
Tanzania’s former president Benjamin Mkapa said globalization was
created and managed by the countries that won World War II.
“The result has been to strengthen the economic and geopolitical
dominance of the north and safeguard its corporate interests,” he said.
“I have become less convinced that the international community,
particularly the rich industrialized world, is serious and committed to
delivering their promises... to support the development of the poorer
populations of humanity.”
UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis underlined that there had been “very
slow if not null” progress in the welfare levels of the world’s poorest
nations.
“It is frustrating to see those who praise free trade and the liberal
market sometimes take the most drastic protectionist measures that
completely... cut down the opportunities for developing countries,” he
said.
He argued that a more equitable sharing of the benefits of
globalization implied an “overall reform of the international
architecture”.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul also urged the international
community to act.
“We must redress the imbalances of the international economic system.
In some cases, that requires financial resources. In many others, what
is needed is a political will that responds to the concerns of the least
developed countries,” he said.
Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, the President of the UN general
assembly, predicted that LDCs were unlikely to achieve international
development goals set out for 2010.
Among the goals, adopted in 2001, are accelerating sustained economic
growth and development, eradicating poverty and inequality, increasing
partnership between least developed countries and industrialized
nations.
Istanbul, Tuesday, AFP |
