January 27, 2003
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo told participants at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2003 Saturday that they need to hear the voices of the protesters outside and begin building a bridge to those who are attending anti-globalization conferences in Porto Allegre, Brazil.
"We need to put a human face on world economy and globalization," he said. "Managing the economy is not an end, it is a means to improve the quality of life."
His comments, to a session discussing the social values of globalization, came as protestors arrived in crowded trains from Zurich and scuffled with police at a stop in a small train station en route to Davos.
Toledo said that globalization makes no sense if it does not reduce the poverty and the extreme poverty in the world. Poverty is the task, the charge, to government leaders and supporters of globalization, he said. "If we are unable to generate dignified jobs and reduce poverty, it will be difficult for globalization to be sustainable," he said.
President of Tanzania Benjamin William Mkapa and President of Finland Tarja Halonen were among the participants in the session. They are co-chairs of The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, launched with support of the International Labour Organization a year ago.
Mkapa opened the meeting commenting on the asymmetry in power relations on which globalization is based. "It is already too clear that poor economies, and the poor within all economies, will pay the highest price - that is not right, and that does not have to be the case," he stated.
He noted that in an increasingly interdependent global economy, globalization should work for all. "The often violent anti-globalization protests are a constant and pointed reminder of that imperative." He acknowledged that true globalization did not directly invent some of the adverse effects currently ascribed to it, such as mass unemployment or inequalities. "But it is not without reason that in many minds, in rich and poor countries, the word globalization conjures up ugly images of job losses, uncertainties about the future and threats to people's welfare and accustomed ways of life."
He said the commission he is heading cannot afford to fail. There is a desperate need to recognize common humanity for all, a common strategy for the planet and shared prosperity. "These are some of the values which, if widely shared, will ensure we succeed to globalize wealth, rather than globalize poverty."
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