Background Release

Impact of Financial Volatility on World’s Poorest Focus as united nations conference

On Trade and Development Meets in Accra, Ghana, 20-25 April

Limiting the impact of financial volatility on the world’s poorest and ensuring that the global economy benefits developing countries will be among the key topics of the Twelfth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), set to convene in Accra, Ghana, from 20 to 25 April.

The event will be devoted to an overall theme of “Addressing the opportunities and challenges of globalization for development”, dealing specifically with the impact on developing countries of the current financial and economic crisis, as well as maintaining the dynamism of emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

“What are the options for improving the international monetary and financial system in order to correct imbalances and asymmetries and avoid future crises?  Can the current commodity price boom be translated into more employment?” are among the questions that Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, put before the Conference in a welcoming statement as he outlined the salient features of what he called the “second wave of globalization”.

UNCTAD XII will also examine how the growth in South-South trade, investment and aid were transforming the world economic landscape, he said.  The growing trade in services and the related expansion in international labour migration will also be considered, as will the impact of Asia’s mounting energy needs on energy security and climate change.

With recession threatening the United States, and growth weakening in Europe, UNCTAD warns, international economic prospects increasingly hinge on the ability of developing nations to continue posting strong growth rates, particularly in the event that a prolonged downturn in the industrialized North cuts demand for exports from the developing South.

The strong growth rates of the past several years mean, on the other hand, that developing countries are in a stronger position to withstand financial and economic turmoil than they were 10 years ago.  Their main role will be to try to maintain as much domestic demand as possible and to focus increasingly on regional integration.  In addition, the big surpluses built up by Governments and national agencies in those countries can contribute to promoting financial stability.

In the longer run, however, there is a need to improve global oversight of economic and financial matters, UNCTAD also suggests.  In 2002, the Monterrey Consensus, adopted by the international community, identified the urgent need to enhance coherence, governance and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems, including through reform of the international financial architecture.

The ensuing years, however, have seen little if any progress on this front, UNCTAD says.  The integration of financial markets has increased dramatically, but without a commensurate strengthening of the global system of economic governance, or coherence between the international trading system, which is governed by a set of rules and regulations, and the international monetary and financial system, which is not.

Delegations are expected to lay out their common vision of a response to such economic challenges in the final documents to emerge from the meeting.  The intensive negotiations on those documents, under way for some time, will continue in Accra during sessions of UNCTAD’s Committee of the Whole.

The meeting will be attended by ministers; representatives of UNCTAD’s member States; officials from international, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations; parliamentarians; academicians; entrepreneurs; and the media.  It will include a general debate by Member States, meetings of the Committee of the Whole and interactive sessions on the main issues.

There will be a number of side and parallel events above and beyond the intergovernmental debate, including an investors’ forum, a technology fair and solidarity market fair.  Debates will focus on ways to make trade work for development, bearing in mind discussions leading up to the November Doha follow-up conference to the Monterrey Consensus on development financing and ongoing negotiations on equitable trade regimes.

Africa will feature prominently at the ministerial meeting.  During a high-level segment on 21 April, entitled “Trade and Development for Africa’s Prosperity:  Action and Direction”, Heads of State and Government will focus on measures needed for African countries to benefit more from globalization and on what should be done to strengthen international efforts to promote development-friendly trade and economic growth in the region.  The debate will be chaired by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and moderated by Mr. Supachai.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was created in Geneva in 1964 as the permanent organ of the General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, finance and development issues.  The ministerial meeting, UNCTAD’s highest body, is held every four years to set the Organization’s priorities and guidelines for action and discuss key economic and development issues.

For further information on UNCTAD XII, please see the meeting website at www.unctadxii.org.

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For information media • not an official record