UN-business partnership to boost economic development
United Nations, New York, 9 February 1998 - 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 statementafter 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, Ko 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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Related article by ICC Secretary General, Maria Livanos Cattaui
Cooperation between the United Nations and Business - full text of the UN-ICC joint statement