 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Focus Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Everyone's apocalypse
The G-15 summit held in Cairo this week reflects Egypt's strong belief in the need to mobilise developing nations to ensure that they have a say in the world economy. The "global economic order" that emerged after the end of the Cold War has not benefited poor nations. As one leader after the other pointed out during the two-day meeting, there is an urgent need for a democratic and just economic order, one in which the wealthy, highly industrialised North does not determine alone the market rules to serve its own interests.At the many upcoming meetings on international trade regulations, the South should speak with one voice, seeking preferential treatment for countries that are struggling merely to gain a toehold in a competitive world market. The developing nations cannot compete with the powerful, highly integrated economies of the North when protectionist policies close lucrative markets to their limited exports.
Another point the African, Asian and Latin American leaders clearly agreed on was that poor nations cannot even make a start with the crippling debt burden they must bear. President Mubarak noted that debt service alone consumes nearly all the national income of the most indebted nations. Promises for increasing investment in poor nations have proved to be empty slogans, nothing more. Thus, the developing nations are repeatedly pressed to carry out reforms, but are never provided with desperately needed assistance in terms of investment or the transfer of appropriate technology.
We are all partners in this world, and the catastrophic poverty in many Third World countries will harm the international economy as a whole: these statements are not just jingles. They express the fact that our world will remain unstable and volatile as long as massive injustices in the distribution of wealth prevail. The time has come to restore order in a chaotic world economy.
