President Pervez Musharraf has stressed on eliminating global poverty, saying that it was possible to generate the political will to do so in our lifetime.
Addressing the Special Summit on Financing for Development here on Wednesday, he said "after all we have a broad agreement on the development policies and goals; the visible support of common people for the development agenda, the global availability of financial and technological resources and the example of economic success of several developed countries."
Musharraf said the road map for national and international action is very clear - sound national policies and correct governance, adding good policies can turn around the worst performing economies.
In Pakistan, the President said, with sound policies, "we have within four years acquired macro-economic stabilisation and accelerated economic growth to 8.4 percent this year; one of the fastest rate of growth in Asia in virtually all sectors of the economy - manufacturing, agriculture, energy, telecommunication services and information technology."
"With realistic hope for peace in our region, we will endeavour to sustain this positive trend through forging close economic partnerships with China, South Asia, Central Asia, East and West Asia, including the Gulf region as well as our developed partners," he added.
Musharraf said development cannot happen without adequate financing. "We must utilise all possible mechanisms to generate such financing."
Resource mobilisation is the most important source of development finance, he said, adding: "in Pakistan, we have adopted several modalities to do this including utilising foreign grant assistance to retire our most expensive past debt; interest rate swaps; property title to the poor; creation of a Human Development Fund, and through private and public sector partnership."
However, the President said, rapid development cannot be achieved through domestic financing alone. It requires sizeable and critical amounts of external finances - as grant assistance, loans, export earnings, foreign direct investment or other capital market flows, he added.
Musharraf said that the official development assistance (ODA) is the most important source of financing for the poorest countries. "We welcome the commitments to the 0.7 percent ODA target made by most of the developed countries."
Efforts to create innovative mechanisms for development financing also deserve universal support, he said and added that both new and some old ideas for such financing deserve considerations.
The President said that the most developing countries continue to require external financial assistance to directly address the goals of poverty eradication, infrastructure and skill development and creation of capacity for production and trade. "We welcome the declaration from the Group of 8, favouring debt cancellation, time-bound commitments for an enhanced ODA, and the efforts for additional innovative financing." The real impact will depend on how these schemes are actually implemented, he emphatically said.
Musharraf said that the foreign direct investment (FDI) flows could and should be encouraged to a wider circle of developing countries and added that they facilitate technology transfer, create jobs, boost productivity, enhance competitiveness and accelerate economic growth and eliminate poverty.
An open and equitable international trading system is indispensable for sustainable growth and development, the President said, adding the "development" objectives of the Doha Round must be achieved.
He said: "We need - apart from good national governance - also good global governance." This implies the induction of equity in the international economic policy-making, Musharraf added.
The reform and revival of the UN to which so much energy is being devoted can only emerge from the principles of justice and equality enshrined in the UN Charter, he said and added that reform will be hollow so long as mass poverty, hunger and disease stalk many of our nations, conflicts convulse so many societies and the world remains pervasively unequal and, in many ways, unjust to the poor and the powerless.
The September Summit must act resolutely to redress these inequities and overcome the deprivation suffered by the majority of the world's peoples, the President concluded.