World business message for the UN Millennium Assembly on the role of the UN in the 21st century

French version

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organization, is the only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world.

Within a year of the creation of the United Nations, ICC was granted consultative status at the highest level with the organization. However, during most of the ensuing half century its working relationship with the organization was largely constrained by the ideological divisions of the cold war and a widespread attitude among UN members of suspicion and even hostility towards private enterprise.

Recent years have witnessed greater recognition of the central role of the private sector in a market economy and the important contribution that entrepreneurial initiative makes to economic development and social progress worldwide. This in turn has led to a substantial re-evaluation of the UN/business relationship and a much broader joint work programme, given impetus by the high-level meetings between ICC leaders headed by ICC President Adnan Kassar and senior UN officials headed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in February 1998 and July 1999.

The joint statements by the UN Secretary-General and the International Chamber of Commerce (see annexes I and II) adopted at these meetings re-affirmed the 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.

To further these mutually supportive goals, business considers it essential that the UN take a lead in the following areas:

1. First and foremost, promote peace and security as the essential foundations of productive economic activity
Crucial to enabling the benefits of globalization to spread to all mankind is the maintenance of peaceful conditions between and within sovereign states. The absence of armed conflict is a precondition for local entrepreneurship to flourish and for foreign business to invest.

2. Continue its efforts to encourage concepts of good governance within countries
Increased reliance on free enterprise, open markets and competition implies less detailed governmental regulation. At the same time, an orderly, stable society able to prosper economically from private entrepreneurship requires a framework of essential rules administered by strong, efficient, transparent and impartial government, the essence of good governance.

3. Work for an environment that accords a central role to competitive markets and entrepreneurial initiative in creating growth and development
Entrepreneurial initiative to satisfy consumers within a competitive market place is a key ingredient of the process of economic development. Governments have a crucial role to play in maintaining competitive conditions and in ensuring that successful entrepreneurship is positively recognized and rewarded.

4. Strengthen global support for a rules-based open system of international trade and investment, while opposing all forms of protectionism
The free flow across borders of goods and services, investment, know-how, technology and information remains a priority. The ICC stands ready to work closely with the UN in the task of demonstrating the crucial links between such flows and development.

However, freedom can only work within rules, and the same holds true for markets. A balance between freedom and rules needs to be achieved for the good functioning of the world economy.

5. Enhance the capacity of developing countries, particularly the least developed, and economies in transition to integrate themselves into the global economy and share in the benefits of globalization
One of the more worrying and potentially disrupting aspects of the process of growing global interdependence is the gap between countries that have successfully integrated into and benefit from a liberalized, competitive global economy and those that have only partially been able to do so or have largely failed for one reason or another to make significant progress in this regard. To reduce this gap will be one of the major challenges of the new century.

Business and rule-setters must respond to the most important challenge of today, the emergence of the global knowledge economy and the opportunities it offers in spreading more widely the benefits of globalization.

6. Give special attention to capacity-building in least developed countries, particularly as regards human resources development, physical infrastructure and institutional reform, to assist them raise and attract investment and to link themselves into the global information society
With the rapidly growing international flows of private capital, the UN and multilateral development agencies should increasingly focus their technical and financial assistance, and especially their concessionary aid, on helping the least developed countries, which have particular difficulties in attracting foreign direct investment.

7. Continue the development of legal and technical norms crucial to the efficient and orderly functioning of an international economic system
With a rapidly globalizing market place, ICC urges the UN to develop internationally accepted legal and technical norms to facilitate cross-border economic transactions, when necessary to complement those initiated by business itself.

8. Give a lead to global action to ensure the protection and conservation of international "public goods" in such areas as the oceans, the atmosphere, water, biodiversity, and public health
Currently, too much duplication and inadequate coordination are preventing intergovernmental bodies from handling effectively these complex problems. Truly global problems cannot be resolved by isolated national or regional efforts.

9. Make the UN and its relevant agencies and programmes the recognized global institutions for promoting human rights and raising environmental and labour standards -- the core values advocated by the UN Secretary-General in his Global Compact with business
History has shown that improvements in human rights and in labour and environmental standards are more readily attainable in conditions of rising prosperity, produced by the interaction of the market economy and good governance. Strong commitment to open markets and the effective treatment of these issues are mutually reinforcing and should go hand in hand.

The multilateral trading system should not be called upon to deal with such non-trade issues as human rights, labour standards and environmental protection. To call on it to do so would expose the trading system to great strain and the risk of increased protectionism while failing to produce the required results. The right place for addressing these issues is the UN and its appropriate agencies.

10. To achieve these ends, the effectiveness and authority of the UN should be strengthened by enlarging its resource base and, at the same time, streamlining its internal organization to achieve better coherence and coordination
World business recognizes the need for the UN to have sufficient resources and authority to tackle effectively the complex and often inter-related global problems of today, while urging further streamlining as part of the institutional reforms being undertaken b y the UN system to tackle bureaucracy and the duplication of tasks. In this respect, the UN should assume responsibility for coordinating international decision-making more efficiently. There is a particular need for the UN to provide a strong single focal point on environmental issues, which have important linkages to the work of a host of other intergovernmental organizations.

On many issues of global concern, decision-making must now become global, with business involved in a meaningful policy dialogue. Today, cooperation between the UN system and ICC is well established. Business has taken on the challenge of the Global Compact launched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to promote universally shared values in the areas of human rights, labour standards and environmental protection.

The ICC looks forward to working with the UN to further develop this synergy in the new century for the benefit of people everywhere. Given the appropriate enabling environment, business expects that it will be able to play its full part in advancing sustainable development, creating jobs and improving standards of living around the world.