CAPÍTULO IV: RESULTADOS Y DISCUSIÓN
4.4. Características sociales y laborales (X3)
H
olding this conference in Istanbul, one of the earliest cosmopolitan cities of the world, is truly symbolic. Located on the crossroads of commercial, economic, political and cultural routes, this city has, for centuries, been bridging the East with the West and the South with the North, and pro- moting dialogue and understanding among nations. It served as an inspiration for poets and artists, scholars and musicians, merchants and politicians. It can similarly serve as an inspiration and provide useful historical lessons for this conference, which seeks to address the all-important question of the full and beneficial integration into the world economy of the 800 million citizens of the LDCs who are not benefiting from globalization.As a concept, globalization means a more interdependent world, where the events in one corner echo in others. It also means a more integrated world with shared values, interests, concerns, responsibilities and greater degree of solidarity among its peoples. Paradoxically, as some countries get more integrated and prosperous, others get more marginalized and isolated. Worse, those privileged enough to be within the high walls of the global village tend to forget about those left outside.
This is the sad reality for the 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. Accounting for 12 percent of the world’s population, they receive less than 2 percent of FDI flows. Furthermore, this minute amount of FDI is highly concentrated in oil and mineral rich LDCs. The share of LDCs in world merchandise exports dropped from 3 percent to 0.7 percent between the 1950s and the present decade. Similarly, between the 1970s and the 1990s, their share in agricultural exports dropped from 3.3 percent to 1.5 percent. In the last 30 years, the number of people in extreme poverty in Africa, home to 34 of the 50 LDCs, has doubled. These setbacks are the more striking when one considers the international initiatives that have been undertaken to increase access of LDCs to international markets, promote economic growth and reduce poverty.
Globalization has failed to benefit LDCs for many reasons. Internally, LDCs contin- ue to face daunting structural constraints inherited from the colonial past. Extreme poverty, insufficient financial resources, inadequate physical and social infrastruc- ture, lack of skilled human resources and weak institutional capacities, not to men- tion the challenge of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, inhibit their growth and jeopardize their sustainable development.
Externally, globalization has been largely driven by the industrial economies’ need for market and investment opportunities abroad, engendered by the modern technological revolution. As a result, the rules and structures of global governance that have emerged to manage this process do not reflect the special needs and eco- nomic interests of the LDCs, late-comers to the process of globalization. Neither the Uruguay Round, which was signed in 1994, nor the wavering Doha Round, which had been billed as a development round, has so far succeeded in addressing the special needs of the LDCs. While the ‘Development Package’ agreed at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December 2005 was a positive step, it fell far short of the target of DFQF market access for all the products from all LDCs set by the Brussels Programme of Action. Even without considering the non-tariff barriers, there are genuine concerns that the loopholes in the Doha Development Package could be exploited by the industrial countries to keep out products in which LDCs are competi- tive. The lack of any significant progress in elimination of agricultural subsidies in the industrial countries and in the liberalization of the international labour market, which would produce quick gains to the LDCs, are clear indications of just how much the global economic regime remains skewed against the LDCs.
If the force of globalization continues on the path of the last 30 years, it will com- pletely sweep away the LDCs. It is therefore the moral and political imperative of the international community to ensure that LDCs not only benefit from the opportunities created by a more integrated world economy, but that they also play their rightful role in shaping its nature. Globalization should address, not accentuate, the world’s challenges. We are not short of ideas on what needs to be done to achieve this goal. Neither is the world short of the resources and technology needed to make global- ization beneficial to all. In the Brussels Programme, the LDCs and their development partners have agreed on goals and targets and identified polices and measures in pursuit of those goals. What is lacking is the political action to translate these com- mitments into reality.
In this connection, I commend the actions announced this morning by the Government of Turkey to enhance its support to the development efforts of the LDCs. I encourage the Government of Turkey and other development partners to continue taking tangible actions in support of the LDCs.
Making globalization work for the LDCs calls for meeting global commitments on development aid, debt relief, trade and trade related capacity-building, and reform- ing the multilateral trading and financial systems by placing at their centre the needs of the poorest nations. This should be a major economic and political undertaking for governments, multilateral institutions, the private sector and civic institutions if we want to achieve a truly global community.