Geneva, 29 October 2002-- The symposium on "The UN Global Compact and Swiss business: making global responsibility work for business and development", which opened here this morning in the Palais des Nations (Room XX), is intended to introduce Swiss executives to the Global Compact proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 1999. Expanding the scope of the Global Compact to encompass the development dimension is another of the meeting´s goals.
The meeting is also aimed at making Swiss companies aware of the advantages to be derived from partnership with the Global Compact, whose main objective is to combat poverty by promoting a healthier and more equitable world economy. The Global Compact calls on business to embrace nine universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour standards and environmental stewardship.
An international consensus is emerging on the role that private firms can play in promoting the economic development of developing countries. This has paved the way for the inclusion of the development dimension in the Global Compact (see informal note by the UNCTAD secretariat on the development dimension of the Global Compact).
More than 400 people are attending the symposium, including the CEOs of Nestlé (Peter Brabeck-Letmathe) and economiesuisse (Ueli Forster); the President of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab; David Syz, Secretary of State, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO); and Edward Rugumayo, Uganda´s Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry; and Sergej Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. It was jointly organized by SECO, UNCTAD and the UN´s Global Compact Office.
The morning plenary was followed by sessions on development and business at the crossroads and increasing foreign direct investment in developing countries and benefiting from it. The symposium continues over lunch with 14 round table discussions, followed at 2.45 p.m. by five workshops: on major societal trends that are reshaping markets; sustainability and global responsibility in finance, investment and credit lending; how business can become an active agent of development; how SMEs can promote sustainable development and make a successful business; and promoting linkages to benefit SMEs in both industrialized and developing countries.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero will present his closing remarks on the symposium at 6 p.m.
Highlights of morning session
"Business cannot afford to be part of the problem", said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a message read out to the meeting. "Rather, it must work with Governments and all other actors in society to mobilize the science, technology and knowledge needed to tackle the interlocking crises of hunger, disease, environmental degradation and conflict that are holding back the developing world." Using the Global Compact as a platform for investment and partnership could create new opportunities for the poor to improve their standards of living, increase the chances of meeting the Millennium Development Goals and promote universal values, which he termed "essential for the long-term legitimacy of markets".
Mr. Syz said that SECO had supported the Global Compact since its inception. The Swiss Government strongly encouraged the business world to accept its responsibility towards society and to practise corporate citizenship. That applied not only to transnational corporations (TNCs) but to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well. The Global Compact´s core set of universally shared values could be adopted by any firm, irrespective of its size or of the country in which it operated. One of its principles was to promote dialogue and partnership between businesses from industrialized and developing countries alike, for the benefit of all. A platform would be provided for Swiss businesses sharing the values of the Global Compact at a meeting to be held on 3 June 2003.
In his keynote address explaining the Global Compact and its link to development, Georg Kell, Executive Head of the UN´s Global Compact Office, described the close relationship between tackling poverty and building markets. He welcomed the SECO initiative as an important step towards establishing an initially global initiative at the national level. The symposium could help to initiate processes and structures in Switzerland that would enable longer-term strategic cooperation between the UN and Swiss companies in the framework of the Global Compact. He hoped that more countries would emulate the example set by Switzerland, one of the first countries to take such an initiative.
Karl P. Sauvant, Director of UNCTAD´s Division on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development, stressed the importance of the development dimension of the Global Compact. Firms, and particularly TNCs, could make significant contributions to the economic development of their host countries. The development dimension could cover such issues as the transfer of technology and the establishment of supplier linkages with local firms, thus enhancing the supply capacity of the local economy; these issues were of increasing importance to developing countries. It was also in the interest of companies to deal seriously with the subject, as many of the issues were very relevant in today´s world. It was likely that, sooner or later, companies would also be scrutinized by the general public as to the economic impact of their activities on host countries.
