Global Policy Forum

Secretary General Kofi Annan urged developing countries to agree to fight corruption so as to persuade rich states to raise an extra 50 billion dollars in aid at a major UN conference this year. The week-long conference, which opens in Monterrey, Mexico, on March 18, "offers us the best chance we have had for many years to unlock the financial resources that are so desperately needed for development," Annan said. He was speaking at the start of the fourth and final round of preparatory talks for the conference, which runs until the end of next week.

Annan told delegates he had appointed South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and the former managing director of the IMF, Michel Camdessus, as his special envoys to help rally support for the conference. "The role of the special envoys is to contact heads of state and high-level political leaders to foster national commitments to concrete outcomes in Monterrey," the UN department of public information said.

Annan identified six criteria for success at Monterrey -- a prelude to the main UN event of the year, the conference on sustainable development to be held in Johannesburg in from August 26 to September 4.

"First, it must strengthen and sharpen the consensus that now exists" that developing countries must do more to attract capital, in particular foreign direct investment, he said. "Agreement to conclude a comprehensive international convention against corruption -- providing for example for the repatriation of illegally transferred funds -- would also be a major step forward," he said.Second, there must be a promise of new trade negotiations going beyond what was achieved by the World Trade Organisation in Qatar in November, he said. Rich countries must double official development aid to 100 billion dollars a year, he said, noting that this would still fall short of their pledge to devote 0.7 percent of gross domestic product to aid.

Creditor nations must go beyond current agreements on the debt of low-income and middle-income nations so as "to prevent the tragic experience of Argentina from being repeated elsewhere", Annan said. Developing nations must be given a bigger say in the management of the global economy, he went on, and Monterrey "must agree on effective follow-up mechanisms to make sure that whatever it decides is actually done."

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.