• Secretary-General, opening 52nd TDB Session, says UNCTAD will focus on achieving "results on the ground" for developing countries.
• Ghana offers to host UNCTAD XII
Participants in a high-level discussion on lessons learned from development and economic reform efforts of the 1990s told the Trade and Development Board this afternoon that there is no blanket prescription for economic progress and that investment and aid programmes have to be designed to fit specific national and even local situations.
The topic of the meeting was "Economic growth and poverty reduction in the 1990s -- lessons from a decade of economic reform for development strategies and global partnerships in the new Millennium." The discussion was the highlight of the first day of the 52nd session of the Trade and Development Board, or TDB. The two-week session continues through 14 October.
An offer by Ghana, endorsed by the African Union, to host UNCTAD XII in 2008 was announced and welcomed by the delegations.
Ransford Smith, Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations Office at Geneva, was elected this morning as President of the TDB´s fifty-second session.
In welcoming remarks at the opening of the conference this morning, new UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said the organization would work to make itself more relevant in a rapidly changing world. The test, he said, would be achieving results on the ground that have the greatest possible impact on beneficiary countries -- policy analyses and technical cooperation programmes that are practical and effective; help for developing nations during the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations to enable them to protect their interests, expand their trade, and improve their competitiveness; progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals; and adjustment and streamlining of UNCTAD activities in keeping with the reform process now under way in the United Nations system.
Dr. Supachai opened this afternoon´s high-level segment -- featuring participation by high-ranking officials -- by remarking that economic development projects and reform schemes should not be too complex for the capacities and statistics available to developing countries. Economic theories are tools, he said: they are not always universal truths, and not always applicable at different times and locations. Dr. Supachai said it is important in carrying out development policies to employ common sense and to be familiar with situations at the local level to avoid doing things that hurt rather than help.
Panellists for the high-level programme were Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade and Industry of Ghana; Leiv Lunde, Vice-Minister for International Development of Norway; and Arturo O´Connell, Member of the Board of Governors, Central Bank of Argentina, who is also Professor of International Finance at the Buenos Aires campus of the University of Bologna (Italy).
Mr. Kyerematen said that for a decade and a half, beginning in 1983, Ghana faithfully and even dogmatically applied all the known market reform prescriptions of the Bretton Woods Institutions and even implemented measures far in excess of its commitments. The results were mixed -- ordinary people and businesses saw a substantial loss of jobs, slow recovery of industrial production and investment, and a collapse of many small manufacturing firms in the face of fierce competition from cheaper imports. Yet the World Bank and IMF said Ghana had accomplished a notable economic recovery and was poised for sustained growth. One lesson that appeared to emerge from the experience was that -- regrettably and contrary to all assertions -- such economic reforms do not always promote the investment they were designed to attract, Mr. Kyerematen said. He added that a global platform for action is needed against poverty, and that it is in the interest of Africa´s northern development partners to strenghten their commitment to anti-poverty efforts.
Mr. Lunde said that paradigms for development and economic reform have to take into account the fact that situations vary and that there is no single blueprint for spurring steady and well-balanced economic growth. One lesson learned in recent years is that development partners should not be coerced into accepting strategies they do not agree with, and at least donors and recipients now appear to be on the same wavelength.
Development cooperation has to be matched by reforms in recipient countries, Mr. Lunde said -- aid will never work nor will consistent foreign investment be attracted unless corruption is fought and governance and investment policies are effective and transparent, and unless domestic investment is spurred and "capital flight" is reduced. Yet it is clear that development policies also have to be homegrown and tailored to match local and regional circumstances. "Best practices" are not an easy way out of development difficulties, either, he added; what works in one place doesn´t necessarily work in another.
Professor O´Connell said among other things that it was clear by the end of the 1990s that not every kind of international "opening up" was good for the world at large or for solving such problems as poverty and inequalities of wealth. Economics seems to go through fads -- it seems to change fashion every couple of years. When policy prescriptions are dogmatically pursued by Governments or on the advice of international financial institutions, there is often something wrong; theory is overtaking practical realities. The "globalization" process of the 1990s showed that financial liberalization did not, when a number of national experiences were studied, play a key role in spurring healthy economic growth. In a number of cases it added to economic instability, as financial flows tended to be cyclical; even in times when capital flows were positive, there could be negative consequences because the countries receiving the flows tended to lose economic discipline. It could be reasonably argued that, rather than free-market finance, financial flows should be managed, from both the creditor and debtor sides, Professor O´Connell said.
Among the remarks of representatives of regional groups and individual countries in the ensuing discussion were that social programmes and anti-poverty efforts need to be supported to some acceptable minimum standard regardless of a country´s economic performance, and hence greater international commitment is needed to combat poverty; countries need to do more themselves to spur economic growth and to increase domestic investment; Governments must retain "ownership" of their development programmes; good-governance and anti-corruption efforts should be expanded; history, culture, and politics have to be taken into account in devising development policies; and that unrestrained globalization in the 1990s left developing nations vulnerable to currency fluctuations, capital flight, erratic patterns of investment, and a marginalized role as exporters of raw materials.
The afternoon´s debate was based on a report entitled "Growth and development in the 1990s -- lessons from an enigmatic decade" (TD/B/52/7) which describes a decade of disparate growth and development experiences among poorer countries.
