HEADS OF REGIONAL COMMISSIONS QUERIED BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL ON RATES OF GROWTH, RISKS OF 'MARGINALIZATION'
Press Release
ECOSOC/5724
HEADS OF REGIONAL COMMISSIONS QUERIED BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL ON RATES OF GROWTH, RISKS OF 'MARGINALIZATION'
19970716 (Reissued as received.)GENEVA, 15 July (UN Information Service) -- The heads of the five United Nations regional commissions told the Economic and Social Council this morning that economic performance continued to improve around the world in 1996.
The five Executive Secretaries spoke to the Council at the start of a panel discussion on the changing role of their organizations and their part in enhancing the well-being of citizens in various parts of the world.
Questions were raised repeatedly about what could be done to spread economic growth more evenly and avoid further marginalization of the globe's poorest countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), told the meeting that while economic growth in Africa was around 5 per cent last year, compared to 3.4 per cent in 1995, the continent was merely beginning the long climb to an adequate life for its peoples. Sub-Saharan Africa was of particular concern, he said, as it had 10 per cent of the global population but produced only 1 per cent of the world's gross domestic product.
Hazem El-Beblawi, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), said that the region as a whole had showed significant economic progress in 1996, but also had been adversely affected by the continuation of economic sanctions against Iraq and the uncertainty surrounding the Middle East peace process, both of which contributed to the worsening of the already serious unemployment problem.
Gert Rosenthal, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said there was a continuing and consolidating trend, differing in degree from country to country, of modest growth per annum, with increased stabilization, increasing arrival of external capital, and continuing high levels of poverty and alarming differences in levels of income. A great question in the region was how to ensure higher levels of growth and especially how to spread wealth around more fairly, he said.
High rates of growth had been recorded by some Asian nations, reported Adrianus Mooy, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), but a number of countries and territories, particularly the least developed, land-locked, and island developing countries as well as economies in transition, remained marginalized. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 62 per cent of the world's population, he pointed out, and still housed some two-thirds of the world's absolute poor.
And Yves Berthelot, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), said two lessons of relevance learned over the last six years of helping countries "in transition" were that there was no single way of establishing a market economy, and that methods to establish market economies did not necessarily result in allocation of funds necessary to ensure social cohesion.
Country delegations putting questions to the panel asked, among other things, about what benefits might accrue to developing countries from the World Trade Organization, and how soon; what could be done to spread economic growth to least-developed and marginalized countries; on whether targets for economic aid to African countries, including those set for the United Nations Special Initiative for Africa, would be met; if there might be a need for "regional strategy notes" along the lines of the country strategy notes already used; what strategies were being considered to deal with mounting poverty and marginalization in Sub-Saharan Africa, and if the Economic Commission for Africa might be renamed the Economic and Social Commission for Africa to place greater stress on the social needs of the region; and what specific programmes were being proposed for the least-developed Asian and Pacific countries which were being left out of accelerating growth in the region.
Among the replies of the Executive Secretaries were that programmes in Africa were being decentralized to "sub-regions", where efforts to build national capacities and infrastructures and to spread useful knowledge could be better tailored to the needs of specific countries; that ideas were being developed and technical advice offered to improve the "negotiating capacities" of African Governments on trade issues; that almost all the activities of the Economic Commission for Africa were now aimed at the goals of the United Nations Special Initiative for Africa; that the ECE had devised, along with other European agencies outside the United Nations system, a joint programme for collecting statistics to increase efficiency and reduce costs; that a number of regional ECE activities had resulted in products used generally, such as regulations on the transport of dangerous goods, which were now administered directly under Economic and Social Council; that ECLAC carried out extensive cooperation with other regional commissions and other regional organizations, such as the Organization of American States, to take advantage of the relative strengths of each and to avoid duplication; that uneven growth in Asia and the Pacific had led ESCAP to give priority in its work programme
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to the economies of those countries lagging behind, and that countries in better positions, such as Singapore, were being asked to help others learn from their experiences; and that ESCWA had tried to provide support and a kind of "second opinion" on various World Bank programmes, as there was some resistance in the region to the Bank and its policies of structural adjustment; it was explained that the backing of the regional commission had helped to make these measures more palatable.
Participating in the debate were representatives of Swaziland, Turkey, Bangladesh, United Republic of Tanzania, Canada, Uganda, Nepal, Egypt, United States, Norway, Japan, World Health Organization, Chile, Haiti, Namibia, Philippines, Brazil and Indonesia.
The Council will reconvene at 3 p.m. for an extended meeting that could run as late as 9 on the subject of the various reports before the group on regional issues.
Regional Economic Performance
The Council took up a number of documents this morning, including the summary of the survey of economic and social developments in the ESCWA region (document E/1997/45). That paper notes that the gross domestic product of the ESCWA region, excluding Iraq, was estimated at 4.8 per cent growth rate in 1996, compared with 2.2 per cent in 1995. The economic outlook of the region in 1997 will depend on the international prices of oil, the speed of implementing economic reforms in member countries, developments in the Middle East peace process and the lifting of sanctions on Iraq. High unemployment rates remained a major problem in the region. The report lists overall economic performance of each member country, then discusses developments in international trade and payments; money, finance and banking; foreign direct investment and the status of women in more general terms for the region.
The summary of the survey of economic and social conditions in Asia and the Pacific in 1997 (document E/1997/44) notes that the benefits and risks of globalization and regionalization are not uniform for all countries, and that specific political responses have to be suited to each country's unique condition. At the national level, effective participation in the globalization process requires stability in the basic macroeconomic parameters of price level, exchange rate and interest rate. The report notes that the task of macroeconomic management is rendered more complicated by exposure to the global economy. Fiscal deficits are often a major source of macroeconomic instability. It says that reforms and liberalization associated with globalization and regionalization may worsen the current account deficit and offers other interpretations on steps countries need to take to benefit from globalization.
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The report notes that on the regional and subregional level, cooperation agreements, for example in the fields of trade liberalization, customs and environmental and health regulations, had to be agreed upon. At the international level, it notes that the majority of the least developed and Pacific island countries and the economies in transition have not yet been able to participate meaningfully in the globalization process because a minimum threshold of development was first required. These countries will continue to need strong official development assistance, and the declining trend in ODA should be urgently reversed. The international community can also assist by ensuring the full implementation of the Uruguay Round and market access for the exports of those countries.
The summary of the economic survey of Latin America and the Caribbean for 1996 (document E/1997/43) notes that the dominant feature of the region's economic panorama in 1996 was the re-emergence of the pattern of modest growth, accompanied by the price stability that characterized the region's economy in the 1990s. However, price trends for commodities especially important to the region were uneven, therefore the terms of trade for the region were unchanged. Exports were the dominant factor in stimulating economic growth. Despite these improvements, urban unemployment in 1996 reached its highest rate for the decade. The report notes that inflation continued its decline in 1996 and stabilization remained a priority for governments. An austere monetary policy was central to these stabilization efforts.
The Council also had before it a summary of the economic survey of Europe for 1996 (document E/1997/42), which indicates that economic growth varied considerably in 1996 throughout the region of the Economic Commission for Europe, with serious setbacks to the transition process in south-eastern Europe. The outlook for 1997 is not expected to differ radically. In western Europe, gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to improve moderately, perhaps to just under 2.5 per cent, but not enough to make a difference with unemployment. In eastern Europe, the average growth rate is expected to slow down to 3.5 per cent as a result of developments in south-eastern Europe where tough stabilization programmes were expected to produce falls in GDP. The report said that assessing the short-run economic outlook for Russia still remains extremely difficult. While in other CIS countries, the recovery seen last year is expected to continue.
Meanwhile, the summary of the survey of economic and social conditions in Africa for 1996 (document E/1997/41), also before the Council, notes that Africa's economic performance maintained the upward trend started in 1994. Preliminary estimates indicate that the GDP of the region recorded the highest growth rate since the start of the decade, at 3.6 per cent in 1996. This was explained by the positive effects of economic reforms and the deepening of market-based, private-sector-driven economic policies, favourable weather conditions in most subregions and a significant rise in export revenue,
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particularly in the oil-exporting countries. It lists sectoral performances for agriculture, minerals, oil, industry, then discusses exports. The report says that despite attempts to reduce political instability and civil unrest, the overall social situation remains daunting. The population rate was twice the world global average, and government efforts to reduce budget deficits has entailed a disproportionate reduction in activities that had ameliorated the social situation. It notes that there are modest grounds for optimism regarding growth prospects for the region in 1997.
In addition, the Council received a report of the Secretary-General on matters calling for action by the Council or brought to its attention (document E/1997/40/Add.1), which contains resolutions and decision adopted at the recent sessions of the regional commissions; a report of the Secretary-General on regional cooperation in the economic, social, and related fields (document E/1997/40), which reviews, as the summary notes, "some of the recent reform efforts undertaken by the regional commissions, provides an assessment of progress achieved and suggests further steps that could be initiated", as well as selective activities implemented during the period between the Council's substantive sessions of 1996 and 1997, including follow-up activities to recent world conferences; and a note by the Secretary-General on reform of the United Nations and its impact on ECLAC (document E/1997/5) which summarizes, among other things, the results of a meeting of an ad hoc working group attended by representatives of 32 member States to set priorities for the execution of the programme of work of ECLAC. The meeting resulted in a number of proposed adjustments to the programme of work to take into account reform initiatives. And there is a note by the Secretary-General transmitting a project for a Europe-Africa permanent link through the Strait of Gibraltar (document E/1997/51) which concludes that the "tunnel" option is more realistic and advantageous -- from the technical, economic and environmental standpoints -- than the "bridge" option. It discusses technical aspects, project costs, traffic projections, and the economic and financial viability of the proposed tunnel.
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