PRESS CONFERENCE BY RIO GROUP

PRESS CONFERENCE BY RIO GROUP

Rio Group countries needed new financial mechanisms to increase public and private investment in the short term, especially for public works, Peruvian Foreign Minister Allan Tizon told correspondents at Headquarters today.

Joined by the two other members of the Rio Group Troika, Foreign Ministers Roberto Faja of Costa Rica and Celso Amorin of Brazil, Mr. Tizon said such investment was also needed for education, health and housing.

The Rio Group was trying to place the need for new financial mechanisms on the international agenda, he said, and had made progress in drawing attention to the issue in recent meetings with individual nations, regional commissions and United Nations agencies in New York.  However, much needed to be done at the technical and political levels.

Those meetings had also stressed the importance of strengthening democratic governance in Rio Group nations, Mr. Tizon continued, with a special focus on democratic institutions and political parties.  On the international level, the meetings had emphasized the need to strengthen multilateralism and international law.

During a meeting of Rio Group Foreign Ministers last week, the Group adopted a document highlighting its joint position on United Nations reform, which stressed the need to increase Security Council membership, limit use of the veto, and strengthen the Office of the Secretary-General.

Asked by a correspondent to outline the new financial mechanisms, Mr. Tizon said there would be three.  One would focus on accountability, distinguishing between investment and current expenditure in Rio Group countries, to increase investment in the short term.  A second mechanism would provide new debt instruments, while the third would set up regional trust funds, with financing over several years, for building highways and other infrastructure projects.

Another correspondent asked Mr. Tizon whether the Group had discussed the mechanisms with the United States Treasury Department, and what its next steps would be.  Mr. Tizon replied that, yes, the Group had spoken about the plan with the Treasury Department, and also with international financial institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  The Group had also spoken of its plan with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Mark Malloch Brown, and representatives of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

As for the Group’s next steps, it hoped to take a stand on the issue at the General Assembly, and put it on the international agenda.  The proposal must advance within a reasonable period of time, or it would fail, he said.

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