Reinaldo Figueredo, Director of the Global Programme, called yesterday for developing countries to tackle head-on the political and economic challenges of globalization.

Speaking in Rabat at a Maghrebian trade conference organised by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the Arab Maghreb Union, he said that developing countries needed to be more aware of the extent to which services would become a significant factor for them in future international trade, but added that the South should make further liberalization contingent on the reduction of subsidies and tariff peaks in the North.

He also said that if globalization were to benefit developing countries it should take neither the form proposed by the World Economic Forum nor the form proposed by its opponents at the World Social Forum.

Figueredo introduced the Global Programme and explained that it was focused on a multilateral partnership for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, especially on reducing poverty by 50 per cent by 2015. Acting on the three pillars of the economy of knowledge, energy and water, he said that developing countries needed to make use of their policy spaces to promote their own development.

On the theme of energy he noted the continuing importance of fossil fuels in the world economy and identified their potential as an economic driver across the Maghreb. For this purpose, cooperation in this field in the region was very important.

Figueredo also praised the Maghrebian regional initiative as an indispensable stepping-stone for integrating its countries on stronger terms into the global economy.

The full text of the speech (in French) can be downloaded by clicking here.

Press coverage of the Global Programme's contribution to the UMA event
Réajuster les échanges au sein de l'UMA
Le Matin Eco
La nécessaire efficacité sociale
Le Matin Eco
Nécessité d'assortir la compétivité économique d'une efficacité sociale
L'Opinion
Le développement des échanges en séminaire à Rabat
Unknown
Position commune en matière de négociations
Unknown
Pour quand une zone maghrébine de libre-échange
Unknown

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