Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0401/04013.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 20KB | 339 lines

$Unique_ID{COW04013}
$Pretitle{271}
$Title{Venezuela
Address at the Special Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Carlos Andres Perez}
$Affiliation{President of the Republic of Venezuela}
$Subject{countries
international
group
world
cooperation
development
south
economic
developing
north}
$Date{1989}
$Log{}
Country:     Venezuela
Book:        International Cooperation on a New Basis of Shared Responsibility
Author:      Carlos Andres Perez
Affiliation: President of the Republic of Venezuela
Date:        1989

Address at the Special Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77

Address by the President of the Republic of Venezela, Mr. Carlos Andres
Perez, at the Special Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77, in
commemoration of its XXV Anniversary, Caracas, June 21st., 1989.

The current situation

     Venezuela is honoured to be hosting this exceptional Meeting of the Group
of 77, which is commemorating its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. It reflects our
country's identification with the unchanging commitment to the cause of the
peoples of the Third World, in the same spirit shown at the 1981 high Level
Conference on Economic Cooperation among developing countries held in Caracas,
which represents a landmark in the North-South Cooperation Process. Our
endeavor to host this Ministerial Meeting is the outcome of our firm belief
that is in times of crisis such as these that international solidarity is most
necessary, even imperative, for demonstrating the political will to solve the
severe problems afflicting our countries.

     The commemoration of the Group of 77's first quarter of a century finds
us, the Third World countries, generally disheartened and skeptical about the
truth of our unity and the possibilities of changing the International
Economic Order we set out to bring about at the beginning of the sixties.

     We could not sincerely and adequately face the crisis enveloping us if we
did not frankly admit the atmosphere of faint heartedness, bewilderment and
incoherence in which we have gravitated in recent years. To such an extent
that we have ended up being caught, as it were, in a trap that conspires
against the very international solidarity and cooperation on which the Group
of 77 was founded. The climate has been conductive to a pessimistic branding
which magnifies our difficulties and exaggerates the various national
differences between the countries of the South as being the cause of the
misunderstandings.

     We must understand that twenty-five years is a short time in the course
of this ever-changing world, which in its long history has witnessed the
emergence and disappearance of entire civilizations. It is our duty to rise
above all things immediate and circumstantial and appreciate all that is
essential with abroad outlook, in order to assess the priceless potential and
bargaining power of the Group of 77. Our goals must be unity and systematic
action.

The balance of the past twenty-five years

     However, the time and effort invested have not been in vain. Above all,
the balance of this quarter of a century emphasizes the ability of the
developing countries to bring nations together in order to ensure that the
topic of North-South relations occupies a prominent place on the international
agenda. And even though the new order we have proposed has not materialized,
the proposition can no longer be avoided. Meanwhile some pioneer institutions,
such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the UNCTAD
Common Fund for the Integrated Program for Commodities, have been created,
characterized by fair democratic decision-making patterns, which contrast with
the cenacle form in which the traditional Bretton Woods-type financial bodies
function.

     Despite the errors committed, in the area of cooperation among developing
countries, we cannot ignore the major significance of the OPEP Fund and the
strong proliferation of multiple South-South cooperation schemes that have
appeared. The most outstanding in Latin America are ALADI, SELA, the Andean
Group, the Argentina-Brazil-Uruguay Tripartite Agreement, CARICOM in the
Caribbean, the Contadora Group, the Group of Eight; in Africa, the
Organization for Africa Unity (OAU), the Organization of Southern African
Countries, the recent Maghreb Integration scheme; in Asia, the Arab Fund for
Economic and Social Development, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Islamic
Bank, ASEAN, the Southern Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, such as
the Global System of Trade Preferences, and the "Manuel Perez Guerrero"
Trust fund. As already acknowledged, in recent analysis of South-South
cooperation, let us admit that such cooperation schemes have recently been
permeated by much generalism and a lack of participation by the operational
actors that guarantee the success of the programmes proposed. But the fact is
that they also reflect the interest in mutual cooperation and, as well as
having achieved success in certain specific aspects, they are an encouraging
framework for future action.

     However, without in any way trying to shift our own blame, the formidable
obstacle that has greatly contributed to the failure of the plans and projects
of the developing countries has been, and still is, the unfair and dishonest
system of international relations, the World Economic Order that constrains
our action and undermines the prices of our commodities. Moreover, let us not
forget that the majority of the economies of the industrialized countries was
built on a high component of state inducement and protectionism which we also
require for structuring our incipient economies. Without wishing to pay
tribute to simplistic schemes, such as the free play of market forces and
privatization, as magic formulae for solving our problems, we recognize the
need for free flowing, more open, economies to enable our productive resources
to be better utilized. On the other hand, the dogmatism of ideal development
models is challenged today more than ever before by a generalized world wide
crisis. In the North one can see how the extent to which the high degree of
economic prosperity was achieved at the cost of destroying the environment,
along with an immoral export of toxic waste to the Third World. And the
alienation of broad sectors of the population of those countries by a
materialist consumerist inducement which not for being more subtle is less
wicked than other such inducements.

     A far reaching discussion of the redefinition of development, reassessing
the concepts of wealth and poverty beyond the parameters of monetary income,
in order in the world agenda, so that social environmental and cultural
affairs, and the values of justice and equity, may be tackled in a manner more
closely interwoven with strictly economic matters.

The validity of the South

     We cannot let ourselves be deceived or confused by light and
irresponsible criticism of our Third World attitudes. To claim that the
feasibility of the common action and stand of the developing world as a whole,
is subject to the degree of uniformity and homogeneity existing among the
members countries of the South is a deceptive endeavor. The main raison
d'etre of the South's unity lies elsewhere. Our unity tends to be based and
structured more on an unfair discriminatory world order established by others,
than on cultural, social, economic or national affinities.

     As Julius Nyerere summed it up with his singular lucidity: "What we have
in common is that we are, in relation to the developed world, dependent-not
interdependent nations. Each of our economies has developed as a by-product
and a subsidiary of development in the industrialized North, as is externally
oriented. We are not the prime movers of our own destiny. We are ashamed to
admit it; but economically we are dependencies. It was practical experience of
the fact that legal independence did not mean economic freedom which made most
of us think in terms of cooperating with others similarly placed..."