Paraguay

At the outset, I would like to express the condolences of the people of Paraguay over the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina. I express my Government's solidarity with the victims and with the Government of the United States, and I ask God to swiftly assuage the grief of so many families. We are gathered here to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations. Six decades is time enough to reflect on the historical process of this Organization and, above all, on the debate concerning the relevance of reforming it. This reform is absolutely crucial and must be directed not only to set up standards that would regulate the capacity of Powers to make war; it is of primary importance that the reform promote equitable economic development, because in a selfish world, where the number of societyís orphans grows daily, it will be very difficult to have global peace. Changes cannot be partial or superficial and must not merely satisfy the hegemonistic ambitions of a few. We need to govern globalization with democratically 17 agreed legal norms and bodies that, through their inherent legitimacy, would have the authority to ensure compliance with their regulations. It must be a desire for world balance, not financial clout within the Organization, that should determine the direction to be followed in the United Nations; otherwise, the power of money will prevail over the power of justice and the rights of peoples, which would dangerously thwart the noble mission of the United Nations. This means that reform cannot deepen divisions; that would be illogical. The Charter must reassert the role of unity among diverse nations which, in spite of their differences, must live together and share their resources and values, which give dignity to the lives of men and women and of our peoples. Development in equity and democracy is the formula. But to reach this stage, we need more international trade and cooperation. Lately a wall is rising to block our exports, while cooperation is being watered down ó or the little cooperation that remains is undertaken unjustly or according to the mood of those involved. The old promise taken on by the richest nations to devote 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to less developed countries has not been respected thus far, except for the honourable exceptions of Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. But it is a hopeful sign that the President of the United States has said in this forum (see A/60/PV.2) that his Government is in a position to eliminate all the subsidies that cause backwardness and poverty for peoples with emerging economies insofar as the other rich nations do likewise. That would be of great benefit to people who are experiencing shortages due to the unfair international order that the President of the United States himself mentioned, so that our peoples' democracy can be stable and sustainable. It is important to point out that between 1990 and 2003 the rich countries increased their per capita income by $6,070, while during the same period, their assistance per capita fell to one dollar; this reflects the great stinginess that prevails in the current globalization model. The United Nations has a primary role to play in humanizing that model. The subsidies granted by rich countries to their agricultural sectors, as well as the assistance that they give to each other, are a cruel paradox. That assistance amounts to a little more than $1 billion annually and the subsidies to a little less. That global policy - weak in terms of cooperation and perverse in terms of trade - will end by undermining the emerging democracies in developing countries. We in Paraguay are deeply convinced of those tenets. Our wish is to cooperate so that our noble purposes will govern the new world order. In our domestic affairs, we have managed to reverse a long process of deterioration to achieve macroeconomic stability and political institutionalization. We are working to increase growth and to strengthen democracy through good governance, thereby tackling and resolving our social problems in a way we had never done in the past. Today my country, Paraguay, is becoming a nation in a predictable situation and one worthy of international trust. We are not bound by any political or economic dogma. Rather, we are seeking to liberate our people from crude fanaticism, from ideological prejudices, from political violence and from fatalism, because we believe we are capable of forging our own destiny in a world of greater brotherhood. Indeed, Paraguay is rich in development potential. We have abundant natural resources: land, water and energy. And, even more important, we have a young population that is highly motivated to grow, to learn and to work. Even though our economy is still small, we are adopting policies and plans to expand our production, increase employment, improve domestic purchasing power and increase exports. We are moving towards an economy that can compete in terms of both quality and innovation. Our country is among those States that lack direct access to the sea. Tragically, Paraguay is landlocked, which is a considerable obstacle to our aspiration to build an economy based on production and international trade. For that reason, we need to create special lending arrangements for landlocked developing countries, ensuring them differential treatment in areas such as lower interest rates and longer grace periods. Such measures could attenuate the comparative disadvantages we feel as a result of our geographical situations. Another dimension I would like to touch on is the importance of new information and communication technologies and of biotechnological and other scientific research. The knowledge and use of those resources cannot be concentrated in the hands of the 18 few. They must be made universally available. Paraguay believes this to be a necessary prerequisite for the growth of global competitiveness. Two years ago my Government inherited a situation of economic stagnation, recession, sterile political antagonism, violence, growing poverty and weak and unreliable public institutions that led to timid social policies that were a long way from addressing the Millennium Development Goals. Today we are recovering political and macroeconomic stability, democratic governance and, above all, trust in the Paraguayan State and in our business sector. We have great challenges ahead of us, but, with faith in the capacity of our people, we are tackling them to build a more just international order. The major challenges in my country are tackling extreme poverty and health care, which affect the neediest sectors of the population: indigenous people and small farmers. To address those issues we have promoted a rapid increase in spending for social services to put a stop to growing poverty. We are financing new programmes: a social protection network for vulnerable groups, with financial subsidies linked to school attendance; in the field of health care, a nutrition programme for pregnant women and for boys and girls at risk for malnutrition; large-scale shipments of seeds for subsistence crops; the purchase of land for small farmers, with a view to ensuring social peace; free medical care for all children under the age of five; concessional electricity rates; and a scholarship programme for students from the most vulnerable schools. With humility, but also with great faith in the future and in the international community, democracy and freedom - we in Paraguay are building a socially, fiscally and environmentally responsible State. In the international context, we join the appeal for a more just and humane world order in which the less developed nations are not condemned for all time to discrimination, indifference and backwardness. In order to achieve those goals we have no alternative to an inclusive multilateralism that offers balance, rationality and justice in international relations. We also condemn terrorism in all its forms. We believe that terrorism is a threat to civilized processes and to the imperatives of resolving conflicts and establishing peaceful coexistence in the world in order to ensure the development and prosperity of our peoples. Similarly, we reiterate, as we have done year after year, our formal support for Taiwanís inclusion in the United Nations, so that the brotherly and supportive Republic of China can have a place and become an integral part of our Organization as a full-fledged Member, in accordance with the principle of universality and the norms of international law. In addition, my country is deeply concerned by the instability and high prices in international oil markets, which militate against our hard-won macroeconomic stability. Our country has not escaped the harmful impact of that phenomenon, given the most unjust burden on society: inflation. We are making every effort to control inflation, because we know that high oil prices have a negative impact on economic growth and poverty reduction. Today, our Government is significantly subsidizing the price of oil, thus depriving the State of major financial resources for necessary social programmes. I would like to say at this meeting that Paraguay is suffering from a misapplication of international justice. There is an attempt to prohibit payments to our State from financial transactions carried out by representatives of a corrupt dictatorship which, with the complicity of a group of international banks, wants to deprive us of resources that we desperately need for social peace in our country. We hope that the appropriate United Nations bodies will not permit the peoples of developing economies to be deprived of major resources through devious legal procedures. We hope for justice in this area from international institutions. The United Nations must either change to lead and to take up the challenges of our time, or it will hide behind a superficial change in order to survive and will become an accomplice in the regression of our peoples and the perpetuation of backwardness. This is a crucial moment that we are experiencing as leaders of our countries, sixty years after the creation of the United Nations and five after the Millennium Development Goals. We find ourselves at a crossroads with two paths before us: one of injustice and indifference that leads to a world that is increasingly poor, unfair and insecure, and the other the path of far-reaching change that leads to peace and global well-being. 19 I would like to express my hope that this historic session of the General Assembly will obtain the commitments and actions required to reduce and eliminate the suffering, abandonment and frustration of thousands of millions of people and that our efforts will yield its expected fruits for the well-being of mankind. I trust that God will give us the necessary wisdom and strength required to lead our countries along the path of liberty, peace, development and justice.