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Press statement
Inaugural meeting, Business Action for Sustainable Development
Paris, 10 October 2001
Global tensions caused by the terrorist attack on New York and Washington place a heavy responsibility on world leaders to ensure the success of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held one year from now.
An outcome that promotes economic development and brings progress in the fight against poverty and in protecting the environment would be doubly welcome to a world starved of good news. Yet the Rio plus-10 summit in Johannesburg is in peril for lack of funding.
Business Action for Sustainable Development, a network covering the full range of business and industry throughout the world, is gravely concerned to learn that the South African government does not have the financial commitments from governments needed to stage the conference
This has prompted the South African government to seek a contribution of a large part of the costs of the core funding of this intergovernmental conference from the private sector. However, business is resisting calls to provide direct financial support. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, chair of BASD, said: "Business funding of the Johannesburg Summit would inevitably lead to charges that business was exerting undue influence."
The decision by the United Nations to hold the Summit in South Africa implies that member governments should provide the financial support that South Africa needs. The pressure of public opinion should be applied to make sure that they do so. South Africa is trying to lift millions of its people out of poverty. The World Summit must not impose any additional burden on its government.
For business, the focus must be on ensuring that the World Summit leaves a lasting legacy benefiting Johannesburg and the South African people, as well as drawing attention to the often neglected business opportunities present in Africa as a whole. Such a legacy would consist of infrastructure development, inward investment, and social programmes.
In this way, business can meet some of South Africa's most urgent needs: to combat disease, to provide training and education, to improve communications and transport networks, and to supply the finance that enables small businesses to get off the ground.
Many business programmes, such as micro-credit schemes and programmes to stem the spread of AIDs are already in progress. There must and will be more of the same, launched under the stimulus of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
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