Poor nations plead for money at U.N. crisis meeting

By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Developing countries had a clear message Wednesday for a U.N. meeting on the global financial crisis -- we need money.
Planning for the three-day conference has been fraught with difficulties. It was first scheduled for June 1-3 but U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto postponed it to this week when it became clear negotiators had no agreement on a set of draft proposals for reforming the global financial system.
Although the meeting has been billed as a summit, no Western leaders are attending. Only a dozen presidents and prime ministers, mostly Latin American and Caribbean, showed up. Others taking part have sent lower-level delegates.
On the first day, speakers from developing countries made clear that they saw their nations as victims of a financial crisis they did not cause and pleaded with the world's wealthy nations to help them.
"We don't have the surpluses and we don't have the foreign exchange reserves that fiscal expansion in our import-dependent economies would require," Dean Barrow, prime minister and finance minister of Belize, told the 142 participants.
"If further devastation in our developing countries is to be averted, specific arrangements for the flow of resources to governments ... need to be put in place immediately."
Zimbabwe's Vice President Joice Mujuru pleaded for a "financial stimulus package" for her country's devastated economy, saying lack of foreign support imperiled a recovery plan drawn up by the unity government.
BROKEN PROMISES
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed the plea by poor countries for more financial aid. He said the world faced "the worst ever global financial and economic crisis since the founding of the United Nations more than 60 years ago."
He also chided the world's wealthy nations for reneging on pledges to boost aid to Africa.
"Surely if the world can mobilize more than $18 trillion to keep the financial sector afloat, it can find more than $18 billion to keep commitments to Africa," Ban said.
D'Escoto, the General Assembly president, warned against building "a Noah's Ark only to save the existing economic system, leaving the vast majority of humanity to their fate."
World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the conference: "We are in the midst of a development crisis of immense proportions."
A set of draft proposals, which delegates plan to adopt by Friday, calls for increased aid and debt relief for poor nations, boosting representation of developing states at the International Monetary Fund and more supervision of hedge funds. It also warns against national trade protectionism.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Washington supports increased emergency IMF aid to the neediest countries as well as more U.S. aid. She said the United States had "a share of responsibility" for the current crisis. Continued...
Source: Reuters