The current crisis speaks volumes about the need for multilateral monitoring and intermediation in both the trade and financial arenas, since they are closely intertwined. Simply put, global stability and security require global action.
 Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi,UNCTAD Secretary-General - P.Virot, WIBH |
UNCTAD has been addressing these and other persistent problems for more than40 years, working to advance development through trade and investment. But as current difficulties show, there are new realities to contend with. The world has been profoundly altered - economically, socially, politically, and even, because of climate change, physically. There has, certainly, been much progress. Some developing countries have benefited greatly from the recent commodity boom, for example. Many developing countries are now net exporters of capital, and South-South trade and investment have virtually exploded, transforming the nature of international economic relations. The new generation of globalization has resulted in a better distribution of the benefits: Real GDP per capita in developing countries overall increased from $812 in 1980 to$1,621 in 2006, and poverty has been substantially reduced, especially in Asia. Even in Africa, average GDP growth last year, excluding Nigeria and South Africa, is estimated at 7%. There is reason to hope that the Millennium Development Goals will, in some quarters at least, be achieved by 2015.
But there is still no room for complacency. While much good news is heard from the South, even its growing purchasing power, and rising demand for its exports from the rest of the world, may not be enough to stem the harmful effects of a possibly global recession. Economic growth in itself has not necessarily led to poverty reduction or a more equitable distribution of income. Large swathes of Africa remain stymied by mounting poverty or jobless growth, and the continent as a whole garnered a paltry 2.7 % share of world exports in 2006, down substantially since 1980. In Africa and elsewhere, there are risks to the recent broad-based economic expansion, including the build-up of global current-account imbalances, of which today's turmoil is only the latest example. Recent growth momentum may already be faltering, with particularly damaging fall-out for the poorer developing countries. The most entrenched developing-country problems of past decades are acquiring new forms, and an alarming magnitude.
 © ILO / M. Crozet |
This is the backdrop for UNCTAD XII, which marks the Conference's return to Africa after 12 years - a continent emblematic of globalization at its best … and its worst. UNCTAD's mandate is more important than ever in today's context of deepening interdependence. There clearly are lessons to be learned from globalization in all its manifestations. There is also an urgent need for solutions to persistent problems and emerging concerns, including the impact of some aspects of trade liberalization, commodity dependence, the technology gap, poor infrastructure and productive capacity, energy security and migration. It is our hope that UNCTAD XII will address the implications of these new realities for trade and development, tackling the challenges and maximizing the opportunities raised by globalization.