The global economy is an opportunity, not a threat
Budapest, 5 May 2000 - The International Chamber of Commerce, the world business organization, today affirmed the readiness of business to work with governments in dispelling fears and misconceptions about the global economy.
At the end of a three-day World Congress here attended by hundreds of business leaders from all over the world, ICC President Adnan Kassar issued the Budapest Business Declaration, entitled: "The global economy: an opportunity, not a threat."
The declaration said: "Business accepts that it has an indispensable role to play, together with governments, in explaining the benefits and opportunities that flow from the global economy and a readiness to adapt to change."
Speakers at the Congress expressed concern at the wave of protests against globalization and trade liberalization that has been a feature of recent meetings of the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, as well as in London and other capitals.
WTO Director General Mike Moore, commenting on the demonstrations in Seattle, said the world's poor were the real losers there. "Without trade and the faster growth it can bring, they have little chance of escaping from their poverty." Other speakers variously described the protests as street theatre and a wake-up call for business and governments.
All countries can and must participate in the gains from globalization, though the least developed required technical and financial assistance to enlarge their capacity for doing so, ICC said. The declaration noted that the absence of political conflict was a precondition for local entrepreneurship to flourish and for foreign business to invest.
ICC said that increased reliance on free enterprise, open markets and competition implied 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 impartially by strong, efficient and transparent government - the essence of 'good governance'."
"Government and business must work closely together to design the multilateral rules for the rapidly emerging global marketplace."
The Budapest Business Declaration called for a new partnership between business and governments to develop the necessary legal and regulatory framework to enable business and consumers to take full advantage of the progress of communications and computer technologies.
"Because of the fast-moving technology in this area, technical and regulatory standards and solutions should be primarily developed by the private sector," the declaration said.
"The essential role of governments is to establish a flexible an
d internationally consistent legislative and institutional framework. Within such a framework, business can push forward with technological innovation."
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Budapest Business Declaration