Ambassador CHO Chang Beom, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea
March 19, 1998Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, my delegation welcomes the fact that the Second Committee's efforts is finally taking up the vital and challenging task of launching a process of a comprehensive and systematic approach to determine the direction and structure of 21st century development cooperation.
Financing and resource mobilization for development has always been at the core of development cooperation. However, the scope of the debate at the United Nations was rather limited, while participation was also limited due to the absence of appropriate representation by representatives of financial institutions.
My delegation is optimistic that the process which we are launching today will lead us to a comprehensive and operative strategy for development financing for the 21st century. We are hopeful that the key elements we are listing today will faithfully reflect the rapidly changing economic and financial realities of the globalization process.
The key elements which were suggested by several delegations, in particular the Group of 77 and European Union, in our view already provide us with a comprehensive list of issues to be covered for the high-level consideration of financing for development. My delegation finds that those elements already suggested are quite relevant and can serve as a good basis for our immediate task of identifying a well-structured and balanced list of important issues to be addressed. That being said, my delegation will not go into detail on what has already been suggested at this stage of debate, and instead wishes to focus our comments on the issue of private financial flows.
In dealing with the issue of private capital flows, we would like to highlight "financial liberalization" as one of the key elements to be studied carefully. Financial liberalization is an issue which has overall implications, not only for private financial flows, but also for the development process in general.
As was thoroughly discussed in various expert meetings, including the spring sessions of the LINK project early this week, the financial crisis in East Asia will have far-reaching policy implications for private capital flows to the developing world. My delegation believes that an important factor for development financing, especially for private capital flows, will be the identification of the necessary conditions for an enabling environment for sustained and consistent capital flows to the developing world, which at the same time safeguards against the volatility and risk of another crisis.
We believe that the current financial crisis in Asia is simply an indication that we are now entering into a new stage of development, moving from labor- and resources-intensive development into a capital-intensive development stage, and that through this crisis, some of the newly emerging economies have had to pay the price for the lessons required to fully integrate into global financial system.
The lessons of the Asian crisis in pursuing financial liberalization will make an important and timely topic to be discussed in the Ad-hoc Working Group, which will start to function from the end of this year into next year, as the impact of financial crisis will be a lot clearer by that time.
Turning to other elements, my delegation shares the view that regional cooperation and South-South cooperation can also be important elements for financing of development. Regional arrangements to strengthen regional development banks and the adoption of a regional joint strategy for coping with financial crisis will improve the creditworthiness of developing world. Triangular South-South cooperation backed by developed countries could also provide a useful mechanism for mobilizing resources.
Finally,
As regards the briefings to be arranged before the opening of the 53rd session of the General Assembly and the proceedings of the Ad-hoc Working Group, my delegation would like to emphasize the importance of the participation of representatives of financial institutions including both the IMF/World Bank and private institutions such as those on Wall Street which are, after all, not far from the United Nations. The proximity of the UN to Wall Street could prove to be a useful asset for all of us in making our discussions for financing of development a lot more realistic and down-to-earth.
Thank you.
