PRESS CONFERENCE BY GERMANY

PRESS CONFERENCE BY GERMANY

The United Nations must focus intensely on providing the means and money to fulfil its 2000 pledge to reduce global abject poverty by 2015, ensure universal access to safe drinking water and provide education for all school-aged children, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Federal Minister for Economic Co-operation and Development of Germany, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference.

The world community was far from reaching these goals set forth in General Assembly resolution 55/2, Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul said, adding that the lack of access to potable water claimed the lives of 6,000 children every day, a situation the world must take seriously and fight hard to rectify.

Earlier in the day, during the Economic and Social Council’s annual high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO) held at Headquarters, Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul initiated a campaign to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals outlined in resolution 55/2.  During her address to the Council, she demanded the United Nations implement and mobilize resources to aid the needy, as called for in the resolution, with the same vigour used to promote and implement Security Council resolution 1441 (2002), aimed at Iraq’s disarmament.

The WTO ministers had thus far failed to make good on their November

2001 pledge in Doha, Qatar, she continued.  That pledge called on the WTO Council for Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights to eliminate barriers to inexpensive medicines for developing countries with little or no pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities, facilitating their ability to confront public health problems.  Nor had ministers made concessions to liberalize agricultural markets and reduce agricultural subsidies, a key concern of developing nations.  Both promises must be met to make the September conference in Cancun, Mexico a success.

She stressed that ensuring the export-earning capacity of developing nations was crucial at a time when the war with Iraq had helped push down interest rates.  Greater export-earning potential reduced developing nations’ dependence on foreign aid and world economic performance, she said, calling for increased official development assistance to aid developing countries.    

Responding to a correspondent’s question regarding the Bretton Wood’s role in debt relief for Iraq, she said Iraqi debt rescheduling had been referred to the appropriate body, the Paris Club.   As for her personal view, she said discussion of the matter was at present irrelevant.  Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries debt-relief program, access to debt relief was offered to countries exhibiting good governance.  It was “very open and clear” that was not the case with Iraq, she said.

* *** *