Developing Nations Call for More Aid

[Brian503a]

www.washingtonpost.com

Developing Nations Call for More Aid

By JOE McDONALD
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; 7:19 PM



UNITED NATIONS -- Leaders of developing nations called Wednesday for more foreign aid and freer trade to help poor countries develop, warning at a U.N. summit that chronic poverty could fuel regional conflict.

They complained that richer countries have failed to meet commitments to forgive the debts of poor nations and to lower trade barriers to their goods.

"The survival of small islands of prosperity surrounded by seas of destitution is not viable," Mexican President Vicente Fox said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. He said poverty "provokes conflicts which respect no borders, and it threatens peace and security at a regional and global level."

Fox and leaders from Jamaica, Nigeria and other nations said rich nations must make faster progress toward carrying out the Millenium Declaration in 2000, which committed them to spend more on foreign aid and help to improve living standards for the poor.

They were speaking at a meeting on financing development held before the start of a summit marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

Jamaica's prime minister, Percival James Patterson, speaking for the Group of 77 developing nations, complained that richer nations have failed to keep promises to stop the outflow of money from poor countries for debt payments and other transfers.

Patterson said poor countries are paying some $230 billion a year to developed nations. He said there has been "no real initiative" to ease the debt burden of low- and middle-income countries.

"This burden is far too heavy for many of these countries," he said.

The event comes amid work on a plan to forgive $40 billion (euro32 billion) in debts owed by 18 poor countries, mostly in Africa, to the World Bank and other international lenders. Some anti-poverty and other groups want the debt relief expanded to cover more than 60 poor countries.

Patterson also complained of a lack of progress on Millenium Declaration promises to eliminate tariffs on exports by the world's poorest economies and to ease trade in goods from others.

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz echoed the appeal for freer trade, saying that fighting poverty "calls for dismantling trade barriers and ending agriculture subsidies that hurt small farmers and the private sector."

The Millenium Declaration committed governments to cut the number of people living in absolute poverty by half before 2015, to stop the spread of AIDS and to expand access for the poor to clean water, schooling and other services.

But only a handful have met a U.N. target set 35 years ago to raise annual foreign aid spending to 0.7 percent of their economic output.

"There remains an enormous backlog of deprivation," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Chinese President Hu Jintao used the event to unveil initiatives including a promise of $10 billion in low-interest loans for poor countries, as well as duty-free import status for 39 of the poorest of them.

Hu said Beijing would give to anti-malaria efforts in Africa and train 30,000 workers in a range of jobs.

"China is ready to work with all other countries to make the 21st century truly a century of development for all," Hu said.

But the largesse came with a diplomatic catch _ several of the offers apply only to governments that have relations with Beijing. The condition appeared to reflect Beijing's rivalry with Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own territory.

Only about two dozen countries recognize Taiwan. But the group includes several of the poorest countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and it wasn't clear whether Beijing might include them in its initiatives without a diplomatic payback.

Pakistani President Gen. Purvez Musharraf pointed to his own country as an example of what he called the success of a mix of aid, foreign investment and economic reform.

Musharraf said Pakistan achieved 8.4 percent economic growth this year after freezing military spending, paying down government debt and giving land titles to the poor.

"Good policies can turn around the worst-performing economies," Musharraf said. However, he said, "rapid development cannot be achieved by domestic financing alone" and still requires foreign aid and investment.

[Richard]

www.washingtonpost.com

Developing Nations Call for More Aid

By JOE McDONALD
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; 7:19 PM



UNITED NATIONS -- Leaders of developing nations called Wednesday for more foreign aid and freer trade to help poor countries develop, warning at a U.N. summit that chronic poverty could fuel regional conflict.

They complained that richer countries have failed to meet commitments to forgive the debts of poor nations and to lower trade barriers to their goods.

"The survival of small islands of prosperity surrounded by seas of destitution is not viable," Mexican President Vicente Fox said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. He said poverty "provokes conflicts which respect no borders, and it threatens peace and security at a regional and global level."

Is this man Fox talking about US global relations or how he runs his own country?

[dman1200]

I love how other countries who don't even lift a finger to help their own people continously demand that we give them more handouts. Enough is enough. Stop the great American giveaway now. No more foreign aide handouts to scumbag countries. Let them figure out how to provide for their own people and if their nations don't survive because of their governments incompetence and corruption then they don't deserve to survive. I wouldn't shed a tear either if their nations collapsed and I may even argue that the world might be a better place for it too.

[dman1200]

BTW I love how they use the term developing nations. Yeah they've only been developing for the last three thousand years.