|
DOHA: Stressing the need of a truly global stimulus plan that meets
the needs of emerging economies and developing countries, United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on Saturday said that the
international community must deal with threats and challenges the
world is facing “as one.”
Ban opened a four-day international conference
on financing for development in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday,
highlighting the importance to confront development emergency.
In his keynote address at the plenary session of
the UN-sponsored Follow-up International Conference on Financing for
Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus,
Ban urged the international community to “confront a development
emergency and accelerating climate change” because financial
crisis is not the only crisis.
Ban’s call came as Western leaders as well as
the heads of the IMF and World Bank stayed away from the Doha
meeting.
Under the scheme of “Addressing Common
Concerns Through Renewed Cooperation,” the meeting was attended by
world leaders and delegates of some 145 UN members. But only some 10
national leaders in addition to some 35 high-level delegates of UN
members were among the participants.
Earlier on Friday, Ban hosted a “retreat”
meeting for world leaders with the aim of converting intentions
expressed at a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington this month
into “concrete recommendations” ahead of the next G20 meeting in
London in April.
But no conclusions were announced, as he was
dissatisfied with the low turnout of the world leaders, especially
those from the Western developed world.
On November 15, world leaders at the Washington
G20 summit agreed to an action plan of immediate and medium-term
measures to cope with the global financial crisis.
Ban on Saturday urged that the participants of
the official Doha development conference could discuss in depth with
concrete plans to update a 2002 Monterrey Consensus on aid to
developing countries.
The Monterrey Consensus, adopted by UN members
at the International Conference on Financing for Development in
2002, addresses development financing issues including domestic
resource mobilization, mobilization of foreign resources,
international trade, development assistance, external debt and
systemic issues of global governance.
It was aimed at achieving the internationally
agreed development goals adopted during the previous decade,
including the Millennium Development Goals.
-- Xinhua
|
