A joint effort is needed to eradicate poverty
今天在Financial Times的社論版裡面有篇很特別的文章，是日本首相小泉純一郎的文章。我看到之後覺得很有趣，立刻就給直美看他首相的文章，不是每天都有首相會在報紙上面有社論的。
這篇文章跟我這學期學的有些關係，貧窮一直是南方國家的議題，我們該怎麼做讓這個世界更為美好，發展跟愛滋病也跟貧窮息息相關，希望這些議題在香港多少可以獲得一些解決。
Ministers from nearly 150 member states of the World Trade Organisation will meet in Hong Kong over the next several days to push for the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda negotiations by the end of 2006.
This round must succeed. It has the potential to be historic. Not only does it aim at more ambitious levels of trade liberalisation than previous rounds but, more importantly, it embraces enhanced integration of developing nations into the WTO system as equal beneficiaries and participants, rather than allowing them to be further marginalised or alienated by the flourishing regional trade agreements. Today, developing nations account for four-fifths of all WTO members.
Japan is deeply and actively committed to this goal, not only because it is the second largest economy in the world and the largest net importer of agricultural products; but because the country owes its present economic prosperity to the opportunities for growth provided by the post-second-world-war multilateral free- trade system and domestic structural reforms, backed by development assistance and advice from the international community. Creating an upward spiral where trade promotes development and development in turn enhances trade is in the interests of developing countries today, just as it was in ours.
The issue is of particularly pressing importance for the least developed countries (LDCs) and other small, vulnerable economies. In the area of agriculture, where these countries generally have a comparative advantage, Japan provides no export subsidies, has already made substantial cuts in trade-distorting domestic support and will further liberalise its market in conjunction with agricultural reform. In all other negotiating areas, such as industrial goods and services, Japan isa strong supporter of special anddifferential treatment for developing nations based on consideration for development.
Ambitious opening of markets alone will not bring sufficient benefits to developing countries, in particular LDCs. It is necessary to consider the supply chain from production to export.
As the top donor country in total aid to developing countries over the past decade, Japan announced last week a significant new development package. The main objective of this initiative is to help developing countries expand their capacity to export, thereby obtaining a fair share of the benefit of the free-trade system. Uniquely, it attempts to link farmers, fishermen and workers in small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries with consumers of Japan and other countries, both developedand developing. To accomplish thisa cross-sector approach is needed, encompassing production, transport and distribution, export and marketing.
The initiative will significantly improve access to the Japanese market for LDCs through duty-free, quota-free measures. It will provide knowledge and technology for the production of exportable goods: for example, technical co-operation for the cultivation of soil and irrigation to enhance agricultural production; improvement of seed varieties; and the preservation and processing of agricultural products. The initiative is based on our own experience of success in the "one-village, one-product campaign" initiated in 1979 in Oita, one of Japan’s southern prefectures.
This idea has already been exported to some south-east Asian countries. In projects in some rural provinces of Thailand, products such as local textile goods and craft pottery were identified as competitive and are finding their way into the international market. We plan to help Africans share in these success stories.
Our initiative also includes assistance to build transport networks and develop workers’ skills through exchange programmes - we will lend experts, invite trainees to visit Japan and encourage partnership with civil society, including senior volunteers from Japan and the expansion of export and investment insurance coverage. It is expected that the culmination of such projects will be of help in finding real markets for LDC products in Japan and elsewhere.
Each project may not look formidable on its own but the combined impact of hundreds of co-ordinated projects could far outweigh empty words and rhetoric.
What is crucial for success is for the people of LDCs to have ownership of development, including the supply chain from production to export. The added value from that process will thus be enjoyed by the people of the LDCs. Given the enormous diversity ofdeveloping countries, this requires country-specific and product-specific approaches. Japan has long eschewed the "one size fits all" solution to trade and development challenges.
Japan is ready to allocate no less than Dollars 10bn (Pounds 5.7bn) over the next three years for infrastructure development related to trade, production and distribution for the implementation of this initiative. Additionally, we will finance the exchange of more than 10,000 trainees and experts in the same period.
I invite other developed nations and advanced developing nations to follow this initiative, in their own way but in a co-ordinated manner, jointly to eradicate poverty through trade and development. Enhanced partnership with international organisations and the private sector within an integrated framework will be important. I call on the ministers at Hong Kong to declare such a commitment, which in turn will provide fresh momentum for the Doha negotiations.
The writer is prime minister of Japan
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