By Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan
The fifteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – UNCTAD 15 –, held on 3-7 October 2021, presented an opportunity for the development community to align the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development with the global “new normal” created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a major United Nations conference of the “decade for action” for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the ministerial conference must address the massive unmet trade, finance, investment, and technology needs of developing countries struggling in the face of the COVID-19 challenge.
UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964. Our headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland, and we have offices in New York and Addis Ababa. Under its slogan “Prosperity for All”, is working at the national, regional, and global level, our efforts help countries to:
– Comprehend options to address macro-level development challenges
– Achieve beneficial integration into the international trading system
– Diversify economies to make them less dependent on commodities
– Limit their exposure to financial volatility and debt
– Attract investment and make it more development-friendly
– Increase access to digital technologies
– Promote entrepreneurship and innovation
– Help local firms move up value chains
– Speed up the flow of goods across borders
– Protect consumers from abuse
– Curb regulations that stifle competition
– Adapt to climate change and use natural resources more effectively
In fact, for the last couple of decades, the US has been dominating the world in a unipolar world, and imposing sanctions on poor countries based on political differences. Such unfair sanctions were used as a tool to coerce other nations and gain political supremacy. In fact, sanctions were never productive and never achieved the desired results, but created difficulties and sufferings for the general public.
In a video statement today at the General Debate of the 15th Quadrennial United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi called for revisiting the international policy frameworks governing trade, investment, finance, taxation, and technology.
The Foreign Minister drew attention to the COVID-induced and exacerbated economic, social, and public health impacts, which had resulted in unprecedented losses in domestic revenues, jobs, the quantum of international trade, FDI, and tourism revenues. These developments, he added, had reduced fiscal space and liquidity for developing countries and were driving inequality within and among countries.
The Foreign Minister echoed the call made by the Prime Minister for transformative global actions that are responsive to the enormity of the triple challenges of the pandemic, economic contraction, and climate emergency. He highlighted the Prime Minister’s initiatives for global debt relief, recovery, and return of stolen assets, climate finance, as well as calls for vaccine equity and a fair international taxation regime.
The Foreign Minister also expressed Pakistan’s support to UNCTAD for its valuable international economic policy research, assessment, and options for developing countries to guard against the negative effects and benefit from the global interplay of development, trade, investment, finance, and technology issues.
It is desired that equal opportunities may be provided to all nations, and monopoly of few countries may reach an end. Free and fair trade policies are exercised. Sanctions must be removed from all nations. Frozen assets must be released. Healthy competitions may prevail, but economic coercion must be avoided. Hope the recommendations compiled in the 15 sessions will be implemented in later and spirit. The slogan of “Prosperity for All” must be realized and serve humanity without any discrimination. All nations and countries, victimized and oppressed, should join the same voice and struggle for economic justice and freedom, condemn the unfair sanctions, and supremacy of any nation. Enhanced, fair, and free economic activities may eradicate the curse of poverty, especially human-made or imposed poverty. Although the world has changed from unipolar to multipolar, and the role of Russia and China is very much loaded, the US is trying to prolong its monopoly. There is a need for collective efforts to overcome all evils and injustice. Unitedly, we may achieve the noble cause : Prosperity for all!
Author: Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan – Sinologist (ex-Diplomat), Editor, Analyst, Non-Resident Fellow of CCG (Center for China and Globalization), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan.
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are only of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinion or position of World Geostrategic Insights).