Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
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United Nations and Business
"Business Partnership to Boost Economic Development"
Documents from the International Chamber of Commerce Web Site
New York, 9 February -- Top business and United Nations officials resolved to forge a close global partnership to secure greater business input into the world body's economic decision-making and boost the private sector in the least developed countries.The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organization, and key UN bodies announced their intentions in a joint statement after talks between the business leaders and key UN representatives headed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. ICC has over 7000 member companies and business associations in more than 130 countries.
Business participants identified two main areas of cooperation:
establishing an effective regulatory framework for globalization, including investment, capital markets, competition, intellectual property rights, and trade facilitation. raising the productive potential of the least-developed countries by promoting the private sector. The chamber of commerce movement worldwide can be mobilized to encourage enterprise development of small and medium-sized businesses -- the main source of job creation. In the joint statement, ICC and Secretary-General Annan declared: "Thriving markets are a precondition for creating jobs, improving standards of living, spreading more widely the benefits of globalization and integrating developing countries into the world economy."
The statement added: "Achieving these goals depends greatly on the effective functioning of the global marketplace and on the existence of open, equitable, inclusive economic systems based on the free flow of trade, investment for economic growth and development and the avoidance of protectionist pressures."
The two sides further noted that business has a strong interest in multilateral cooperation, including standard-setting through the UN and other intergovernmental bodies and international conventions on the environment and other global and trans-border isues.
Headed by ICC Vice-President Adnan Kassar, the business delegation included leading executives from 25 major companies. Among them were: Alcatel Alsthom, Anglo Gold, BAT Industries, Bata, Coca-Cola, EdperBrascan, Goldman Sachs, GEC International, Henkel, Koç Holding, McDonald's Worldwide, Pirelli Group, Reemtsma, Rio Tinto, Unilever and US West. The heads of two key UN economic bodies, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), also took part in the discussions.
Mr Kassar, who is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fransabank Group, Lebanon, said ICC was uniquely placed to work effectively with the UN in the promotion of entrepreneurial and management skills, which he described as "a cornerstone in the process of economic and social development."
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Business Partnership Forged on Global Economy
By ICC Secretary General Maria Livanos CattauiParis, 6 February-- The way the United Nations regards international business has changed fundamentally. Today, with cold war rivalries fading into history, the UN and other intergovernmental organizations and institutions have to confront the great new challenges of the global economy. They need business to help them.
This shift towards a stance more favourable to business is being nurtured from the very top. As UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said: "The impact of the private sector is of growing importance. It would be timely to develop means of consultation between the United Nations and the business community"
Nowhere has the sea-change in attitudes been more marked than in the field of international investment. The overwhelming majority of UN governments now see foreign direct investment as a national asset, the source of economic progress and new wealth for their peoples. They vie with one another to persuade companies that their countries offer social stability, the rule of law, and a regulatory framework capable of inspiring investor confidence.
Long gone are the days when governments of what was then known as the Third World used the UN platform to berate multinational corporations as rapacious monsters, interested only in depriving them of their natural assets and draining their national wealth.
This courting of foreign capital and expertise is a sign of the times. The market economy system is everywhere embraced as the most effective means of generating and spreading wealth. But it cannot operate at maximum potential without an efficient regulatory framework that sets the rules of the game.
Those rules once came almost exclusively from national governments, but that is changing fast. As economies become ever more closely enmeshed, the need for strong multilateral rules becomes even more pressing. The emphasis has to shift from national or regional legislation to rules that can be applied globally. For these, business must look to the United Nations and its agencies as well as to other key intergovernmental organizations like the World Trade Organization.
International institutions increasingly turn to business. An example is the "Business Partners for Development" initiative launched at the World Bank to encourage development agencies to involve businesses in their own programmes. As one senior Bank official remarked: "The public sector isn’t hacking it alone any more."
The International Chamber of Commerce, representing business throughout the world, is establishing a systematic dialogue with the United Nations. The purpose of these contacts is to find fruitful areas for cooperation between the UN and business as the main agent for diffusing technology and wealth through trade and investment.
What makes the dialogue possible is the perception by both sides that open markets are a precondition for spreading more widely the benefits of globalization, for integrating developing countries into the world economy, and for improving living standards of all the world’s peoples, and in particular the poor.
One priority area where business can contribute its expertise is to make sure that the global financial system possesses the checks and balances needed to avert East Asia-style financial crises. Another is pursuing economic growth while protecting the environment. Others are trade liberalization, defence of intellectual property rights, the fight against corruption, modernization of customs procedures. The list is long.
The dialogue is coming about not a moment too soon. Globalization has the potential to bring immense benefits to the human race. But as recent events in East Asia have demonstrated - it can swiftly magnify local crises into problems affecting the entire world economy. Hence the need for a framework of rules on investment, capital markets, competition policy and a host of other areas.
Both governments and business have their responsibilities. As the global economy grows, it will be for governments - particularly in the poorer countries - to find ways at national level to ensure that newly generated wealth benefits all their peoples and not just a privileged few.
The creation of small and medium sized businesses will be the most effective way of spreading genuine wealth as opposed to providing hand-outs. Here business knowhow – communicated perhaps through the chamber of commerce movement worldwide – has a key role to play. Rural infrastructure development, provision of basic health care and education will be essential too, but these are all primarily the responsibility of government.
Finally, it remains for business to provide the enterprise, capital and inventiveness, and to forge the alliances and strike the deals that make the global marketplace a reality.
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Cooperation between the United Nations and Business Joint statement on common interests by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the International Chamber of Commerce (February 9, 1998)
On 9 February 1998, the Secretary-General of the United Nations met with representatives of the international Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to further the dialogue between the United Nations and the private sector. Representatives of more than 25 businesses from all regions of the world took part, along with Secretariat officials and, as observers, representatives of several United Nations Member States in their capacities as heads or members of intergovernmental bodies.
At the end of the meeting, the Secretary-General and ICC issued the following joint statement:
- Broad political and economic changes have opened up new opportunities for dialogue and cooperation between the United Nations and the private sector. Such a partnership could give new impetus to the pursuit of a more prosperous and peaceful world.
- There is great potential for the goals of the United Nations - promoting peace and development - and the goals of business - creating wealth and prosperity - to be mutually supportive. Development and peace are essential for trade and investment to occur and for business to grow. At the same time, thriving markets are a precondition for creating jobs, improving standards of living, spreading more widely the benefits of globalization and integrating developing countries into the world economy.
- Achieving these goals depends greatly on the effective functioning of the global marketplace and on the existence of open, equitable, inclusive economic systems based on the free flow of trade, investment for economic growth and development and the avoidance of protectionist measures.
- Growing economic interdependence among nations underscores the importance of supportive institutional frameworks. Business has a strong interest in multilateral cooperation, including standard-setting through the United Nations and other intergovernmental institutions and international conventions on the environment and other global and transborder issues.
- The United Nations and the business community should work jointly to expand economic opportunities, especially in countries which may face marginalization. Ultimately, the promotion of development can succeed only if it leads to a situation in which investment sustains broadly based growth. In this regard, special attention must be given to the needs of African and the least developed countries.
- Cooperation at the country level is largely about preparing the ground for business to invest on a scale and in a manner conducive to sustainable growth and development. Efforts by the international community to promote appropriate policies and good governance, to strengthen institutions and infrastructures, to eradicate poverty and to develop human resources are critical to the creation of a business-friendly environment. Taking into account the experience of business and drawing on its skills and resources can significantly enhance these efforts. Business is well aware that it must be a responsible partner in the social order in which it operates.
- Further dialogue between the United Nations and the private sector should focus on articulating common interests, intensifying the search for partnerships and translating the potential of cooperation into concrete action. In particular, the business community should strengthen its dialogue with the relevant intergovernmental institutions and bodies, particularly the United Nations, including its organs such as the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council.
The Secretary Geneal will consult with the Administrative Committee on Coordiunation with a view to establishing a jointly funded inter-agency business liaison services to be named the United Nations Enterprise Liaison Service, patterned along the lines of the Non-Government Liaison Service.
Link to a chronology of the UN fincancial difficulties
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