United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for concerted international action on rising food prices ahead of the opening on Sunday of five days of talks on globalisation.
More than 3 000 delegates from 193 nations are expected to attend the 12th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which is being held against a backdrop of rising food prices and an economic slowdown.
”The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development could not have come at a more crucial time,” Ban said upon his arrival at Accra airport in Ghana late on Saturday.
The soaring price of basic foodstuffs in some of the world’s poorest nations has already caused riots in Haiti and demonstrations across Africa.
”This is a worrisome situation as it poses a threat to the stability of many developing countries,” he said, adding that solving this crisis immediately is of particular importance as those hardest hit by it are those who have been left behind by globalisation.
”Concerted international action is urgently needed to tackle this issue,” he said.
The Accra meeting was set to begin with a speech by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — head of one of the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) of rapidly-expanding economies, and a key player in the stalled Doha round of world trade talks.
In his address to the conference Ban was expected to warn that not everyone benefits from globalisation.
”We are going to study the economic impacts of globalisation, including poverty reduction, wealth, employment, and we will draw the lesson that some countries benefit from globalisation, and others do not,” he was expected to say. — AFP
