PRESS CONFERENCE BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Solid cooperation with the international financial institutions was essential for making the Economic and Social Council truly action and results- oriented, Francesco Paolo Fulci, Permanent Representative of Italy and President of the Council, told correspondents this morning at a Headquarters press conference.

Speaking about the Council's special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions to be held on Thursday, 29 April, Mr. Fulci was joined by Ian Kinniburgh, Director of the Development Policy Analysis Division of the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), and Sarbuland Khan, Director of DESA's Division for Council Support and Coordination.

There had been ongoing efforts to revitalize the Economic and Social Council and to instill new life into what was, according to the Charter, one of the principal organs of the United Nations, said Mr. Fulci. The founding fathers had devised the Council as a body to complement the Security Council for the promotion of economic and social development, and for the safeguarding of human rights.

Unfortunately, he continued, over the years it had become a sort of "summer session" of the Second and Third Committees of the General Assembly, and simply an election booth for the membership of its subordinate bodies. Last year, with President Juan Somavia of Chile, and now under the Italian Presidency, the Council was trying to bring itself back to what it once was, when it had been created by the founding fathers. Among the seven specific points presented in his statement, when he was elected as President of the Council, was enhanced working relations with the Bretton Woods institutions.

The process had started last year and would be continued tomorrow with a meeting that included the participation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, Michel Camdessus, and the World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, and for the first time the Chairman of the IMF's Interim Development Committee and Minister of the Treasury of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Also joining them would be: Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda, the Minister of Finance of Thailand and Development Committee Chairman; Mats Karlsson, Chairman of the Group of 10 and State Secretary for International Development Cooperation of Sweden; and Carlos Saito, Vice-Chairman of the Group of 24 and Adviser to the President of the Central Bank of Peru. The Deputy Secretary- General, Louise Fréchette, would also be in attendance.

The theme of the meeting would be the functioning of international financial markets and stability in financing for development, he continued. It would not be a series of statements by the participants, but a dialogue, and would be structured as such. There would be initial statements by the

panellists, followed by questions asked by the ministers. For the first time, a Prime Minister -- Saint Kitts and Nevis -- and two Deputy Prime Ministers -- Turkey and Peru -- would be attending, in addition to a score of finance ministers.

He then highlighted some of the questions that would be addressed during the meeting. With regard to the measures to promote recovery in the developing and transition economies, questions might concern the additional measures to be taken to improve the growth prospects of developing economies. Also, how could the vulnerability of developing countries to the contagion processes be reduced? Other questions included those on: the progress of the reform of the international financial architecture; the actions to be taken to increase the level and stability of longer-term flows of development finance; and the problem of external debt.

External debt, he continued, was of great concern to the developing countries, most of whom were unable to pay even the servicing of their debt. Should there be outright debt cancellation for the poorest countries? Should debt relief continue to be seen as quid pro quo for the adoption of appropriate policies? Those were among the questions expected to be raised. Countries that were debt-ridden, but still insisted on spending money on weapons, was another issue to be addressed.

In response to a question on the "leap" the Council was taking in discussing such issues in the United Nations and how that would be received in Washington, D.C., Mr. Fulci said that what he was trying to do was to bring the Council back to its original role. One of its original roles was to coordinate cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions.

The atmosphere had changed in the past few years, he said. When he began his term at the United Nations six years ago, there had been a sort of wall between those institutions and the Organization. All of a sudden that had dissolved. No one would have imagined that President Wolfensohn and his Executive Directors would have marched into the Council Chamber, as they had done on 2 February. Just as they would not have imagined that half of the Council would have gone to Washington to reciprocate that visit. New synergies were being established.

Responding to a question on the long-term development project he was proposing to the Security Council for Haiti, he said that poverty eradication was one of the top priorities of the renewed Economic and Social Council. Next July, in Geneva, the Council's high-level segment would be devoted to the role of employment and work in poverty eradication. While his previous obsession had been the reform of the Security Council, his new obsession was the crusade against poverty in the world.

He added that for the first time the Security Council had asked the Economic and Social Council to do something concrete in the rehabilitation of

ECOSOC Press Conference - 3 - 28 April 1999

a country -- Haiti. There were already a number of plans for Haiti's rehabilitation from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. When the Economic and Social Council met on 6 May, he planned to suggest the creation of a task force, consisting of five ambassadors, who would be willing to roll up their sleeves and work seriously with the support of DESA, to study all the plans that already exist.

Their task would be to see if there were duplications in the existing documents and to create a document that, if approved by the Economic and Social Council, would then be submitted to the Security Council, he added. In that way, for the first time, the Economic and Social Council would be complying with Article 65 of the Charter, described by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a dormant article, since it had never been applied in the Organization's 53-year existence. [Article 65 states that the Economic and Social Council may furnish information to the Security Council and shall assist the Security Council upon its request.]

Turning to the proposed world conference on finance for development, he said that two Permanent Representatives to the United Nations -- Ernst Sucharipa of Austria and Kamalesh Sharma of India -- had prepared a document that would be circulated at tomorrow's meeting concerning that proposed conference.

Elaborating on that proposed meeting, Mr. Kinniburgh said that there was a working group of the General Assembly trying to put together an event on financing for development. It had not been scheduled yet, nor had it been decided what kind of event it would be. It would take place before the end of 2001 and there would be a document distributed at tomorrow's high-level describing putting the status of discussions on the proposal.

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