Prime Minister P.J. Patterson addresses delegates at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, yesterday. World leaders explored ways to revitalise the U.N. at yesterday's summit, but their blueprint fell short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. - REUTERS
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson has urged developed countries to do more to help developing countries achieve the United Nations (U.N.) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
The MDGs involve the eradication of poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.
The Prime Minister said an assessment of the past five years since the Millennium Summit in Monterrey, Mexico, revealed that developed countries have not done enough to help developing countries.
Mr. Patterson was addressing yesterday's high-level plenary of the 60th session of the U.N. General Assembly, as chairman of the Group of 77 and China.
According to Mr. Patterson, developing countries made net transfers of more than US$1,174 billion to developed countries since 2000, noting that these negative transfers have persisted, despite commitments made by developed countries to increase official development assistance and reduce debt and debt service payments to developing countries.
MARKETS NOT SUFFICIENTLY OPEN
He said that developed countries have failed to sufficiently open their markets to products from developing countries, as well as encourage private investment.
"While resources from developing countries flow to developed countries without impediments, the initiative and programmes of developed countries, which would transfer resources or provide access to developing
countries, have either been negligible, stymied in negotiations, or surrounded with strict policy conditionalities," Mr. Patterson said.
Despite this, the Prime Minister added that developing countries have been making significant efforts and have increased their domestic resources.
