PRESS CONFERENCE BY COSTA RICA

27 September 1996

Press Briefing

19960927 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

A South-South conference on trade, finance and investment will be held in San Jose, Costa Rica, from 13 to 15 January 1997, Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres Olsen announced at a Headquarters press conference this morning. If the responses received so far from member States of the "Group of 77" developing countries and private sector companies and corporations were any indication, he thought the conference would be successful.

The President said that with cooperation between the developed world and developing countries dwindling, developing countries could learn a lot from each other. They had tremendous opportunities for trade and commerce and for partnerships between their private and public sectors. Costa Rica, which chaired the Group of 77, and China hoped the San Jose conference would bring renewed opportunities for growth and development among those countries.

Asked to comment on a recent assessment by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that developing countries were economically worse off now than 10 years ago, the President said that in his address to the Group he would convey a message of optimism. "It doesn't do us any good to sit around and complain about the present situation", he said. Developing countries should accept the fact that the flow of cooperation between the North and the South had greatly diminished. Developing countries could learn a lot from each other if they worked towards that goal.

He said he would also focus on environmental issues, adding that developing countries could be of help to the industrialized nations, particularly in terms of what they had done with their natural resources. "We, the developing nations, are really the developed nations. We have the biodiversity that the developed nations do not have anymore. We have the forests and the natural resources that allow us to play a major role in issues such as climate change, biodiversity prospecting, and proper use of water with respect to the new century", he observed.

Noting that in most developing countries, the idea persisted that the government or the State had to be the main impetus for development, a correspondent asked what role should the private sector in those countries play. The President said the private sector could play a very important role but it was not a substitute. An appropriate balance of market forces and the role of the State was required. There was need for a new awareness and a new sense of social responsibility in the private sector, while changes were also needed in the public sector. Governments must be flexible or efficient.

With regard to privatization, he said it was up to individual governments to decide, taking account of their own circumstances. There were certain areas where the private sector did have a role to play, as was the case in Costa Rica. But the government also had a monopoly in areas it considered of strategic interest.

How did he see the situation at the United Nations following its fiftieth anniversary celebration? a correspondent asked, adding that the Organization seemed to be of low priority to governments as heads of State or government, in New York for the session, had been designating their foreign ministers or permanent representatives to deliver their statements in the General Assembly debate. The situation was even more noticeable in the case of Costa Rica in the light of its quest for a seat on the Security Council, the correspondent added.

Replying, President Figueres said his country attached the "highest priority" to the Organization and that all that had been said about the need for changes was "very good". "But, at the same time, I will not wish to distort or play down the very important role played by the United Nations over the past 50 years. What would the world have been without institutions such as the United Nations? He said the Organization had had its problems, limitations and mistakes like all other human institutions. The fact, however, was that overall, it had had more successes than failures. As the world looked to the future, "organizations such as the United Nations have a key role to play, he said, adding that in Latin America the United Nations was considered "to be of the utmost importance".

Asked what he thought about Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's quest for a second term, the President said: "We don't have a position. We have been observing events in this connection not in the light so much of personalities but in terms of objectives." Costa Rica was very much committed internally to reform and to update itself and its Government and institutions to the new world context and situation. It recognized that the process was hard and difficult. There was no pattern to copy or path set out for them. "We are committed to change and transformation here in the United Nations as well. It is far more important than to think of personalities."

Asked what basic changes he would like to see, the President said the Security Council required certain important reforms. Its membership should be brought up to date. The relationship between the stronger and weaker countries in the Council should be reviewed, and the veto issue considered.

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