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Opening Remarks ECOSOC Chamber
New York, 27 October 2000
Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure, as President of the Economic and Social Council and on behalf of the Council Members, to extend a warm and cordial welcome to you to this special meeting of the Council. You bring to the post of Managing Director of the IMF a most impressive set of credentials, accomplishments and leadership qualities that augur well for the future of the IMF, which you are leading into the 21st century. Your presence here with us today is eloquent testimony to your understanding of the significance of the broad currents and forces sweeping the world, particularly in this era of globalization and digitalization. I would therefore like to thank you for taking the time to join us today for this important exchange of views and dialogue regarding these challenges. This Council, as the central forum of the United Nations for economic and social issues, provides overall guidance and coordination to the Organization’s development system, and promotes an integrated follow-up to the major United Nations Conferences in the economic, social and related fields. In the framework of this mandate, the Council, in recent years has worked hard to bring together all development partners so as to promote a coherent and consistent approach for the various parts of the system in our common pursuit of development goals, including the urgent need to reduce and, eventually, to eradicate the scourge of poverty from the face of the earth. As part of this effort, I believe there has been a steady improvement and intensification of the relationship between the Bretton Woods Institutions and this Council. Such increased interaction and dialogue has helped us, within our respective mandates and institutions, to do a better job in addressing the economic and social challenges facing humankind. It has also helped, particularly the greater majority the world’s population living in the developing countries, to transform these challenges into real opportunities for development for all. Our Member States have welcomed this increased cooperation, most recently, during the Millennium Summit and the Assembly’s general debate, and have called for a further strengthening of interaction between our institutions. While recognizing that cooperation and interaction between the BWIs, including the IMF, and the United Nations has greatly improved in recent years, we are also aware of the differences that exist between our respective mandates, and consequently, between our approaches and outlooks. It is therefore our common responsibility to seek ways to ensure that these differences do not become sources of controversy or conflict, but rather sources of complementarities of purpose and common action. What is crucial is that the economic financial and social dimensions of development should be tackled in a coherent and consistent manner so as to ensure that overall poverty reduction can be achieved. Indeed, the intrinsic and mutually reinforcing links between economic, financial and development objectives make it imperative that our policy prescriptions reinforce each other rather than being at cross-purposes. To achieve this, our policies should be designed more in tandem with each other and less in isolation. In recent years our efforts to achieve greater policy coherence and better cooperation have greatly benefited from the annual high-level policy dialogue with the heads of the World Banks, the IMF, UNCTAD and the WTO which takes place at the beginning of the Council’s substantive meeting in July. These policy dialogues have greatly helped in assessing global economic growth, and financial and trade issues in relation to the development objectives of the Member States. In addition the special high-level meeting of the ECOSOC with the Bretton Woods Institutions in April for the past three years has evolved into a valued forum for dialogue on issues of reform concerning the global financial architecture and its impact on broader development goals. This demonstrates the strong political will exercised by the international community in seeking to converge their efforts to deal with issues of common concern, in particular in the aftermath of the international financial crisis. In this context, the high-level intergovernmental event on financing for development to be held this coming year represents another opportunity for strengthening cooperation and interaction between the United Nations and the IMF. Indeed, I hope and expect that your vision for the Fund, which you have so eloquently elaborated on at the recent Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors in Prague, will be reflected in a strong and decisive role for the Fund both in the preparations for that event as well as during the event itself. Another issue of mutual importance for our common purposes is that of globalization and its impact on the development process. In this regard, the Millennium Summit and its Declaration, as well as the subsequent general debate in the Assembly have confirmed that globalization, particularly its uneven distribution with regard to costs and benefits, is the central challenge, and poverty eradication, the common and overarching goal we must address. In our opinion, success in ensuring that globalization is transformed into a positive force that is inclusive of all the world’s people, depends largely on good governance at the international level as well as transparency in the financial, monetary and trading systems. Governments have, in general, committed themselves to an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading and financial system. It is now our common responsibility, as international institutions, to work together to turn these commitments into practical and tangible progress for all Member States and peoples. This implies fair and predictable rules of the game. But, it also implies the need for solidarity and protection of the poorest and most vulnerable. For, in the last analysis, a global system of wealth creation built on the backs of the poor and the disenfranchised cannot be a lasting one. Rather, we should build on the new momentum of working together in partnership and solidarity so as to construct an open, just and fair system of trade and finance, mindful of our common principles of humanity which, as you have already emphasized, Mr. Managing Director, are central to your vision on the future of the IMF. Before concluding, let me briefly comment on a few issues that I expect will feature prominently in our discussions and cooperation in the future. Concern for the poorest members of the international community requires not only compassion, but concrete, tangible assistance and favorable terms of trade. We all agree that accelerated economic growth is a sine-qua-non in our fight against poverty and for development, and that the IMF has a critical role to play in promoting non-inflationary economic growth for the benefit of all. The poor and most vulnerable countries are gravely concerned with the structure and functioning of the present international financial architecture over which they have no control. Yet, it can have devastating effects on their economies. There is also widespread concern that the present rules of the game clearly place the small, poor and less developed countries at an acute disadvantage. It has been said that there is no level playing field when equal rules are applied to unequal partners. Thus, crisis prevention and management, including through the channels of regular dialogue with the private sector, and longer term financial reforms, are therefore issues that require to be addressed in the broader context of building an open, fair and equitable system of world trade and finance. The Millennium Declaration encompasses such a broad and long-term vision to which all our Heads of State and Government committed themselves last September. We are looking forward to your leadership in ensuring that the IMF plays its full part in this agenda. In conclusion, I would like to thank you once again for joining us today. May I now invite you to make a statement, after which Members of this Council will have an opportunity to make their own comments, and to engage with you in constructive dialogue. Mr. Koehler you have the floor.
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