Mr. Vice Premier, the Finance Minister,
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me, first of all, return the compliment, on behalf of all of us, to you, Mr. Vice Premier, to you, Mr.Minister, and you, Mr. Mayor, for the great contribution that you have made to the success of this meeting. Idon’t think any of us could have imagined a more well-organized conference or a more warm welcome thanyou have given us here in Shanghai, and I would like everyone to join me in expressing our thanks to you.[TONE]∥[TONE]
I would like to make just two general comments.
The first is that all of us have to work politically to ensure that poverty and the alleviation of poverty arecentral on the global agenda. I believe that today it is not central on the global agenda. I believe that todaylip service is given to the question of poverty. The real issues today that seem to be on the mind of theworld—terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, the budget deficits—are the visible problems that must be dealt with,that are immediate, while attention is given less to the equally inevitable and the equally dangerous problemsthat come with poverty. [TONE]∥[TONE]
We must deal with the question of social equity and social justice. Because without dealing with thatquestion of poverty, there can’t be any peace, and $900 billion being spent on military expenditure, $300billion being spent on agricultural subsidies, and $50- or $60 billion being spent on overseas developmentassistance is one of the absurdities that we have to change. [TONE]∥[TONE]
And the second and last thing I’d like to say is that we have talked about economics, we have talkedabout advances that must be made for social justice, and we’ve talked about steps that need to be taken inempowerment and in the methodologies that we can use to scale up. [TONE]∥[TONE]
But the one thing that we have not talked about and that I think all of us need to recognize is that if weare to be effective in advocating the case for poverty reduction, and hopefully eradication, is that we have to do it with a sense of belief that what we are doing is right. We should be addressing the question of poverty not just from economics, but because dealing with equity and social justice is right. [TONE]∥[TONE]
We should not be afraid to say that there is a human content in what we’re doing, but there is alsoa moral and, if you like, spiritual content in what we’re doing. We are not here just as economists. Weare here because we owe every human being in the world an opportunity and a chance to fulfill theirdestiny. [TONE]∥[TONE]
And so going out from this meeting I hope we feel a little bit uplifted and a little bit responsible to goout from here to deal with the question of scaling up of poverty alleviation because it’s right, and as membersof the human race, it’s something that we should do.
Thank you very much to our hosts, and thank you all for being here. [TONE]∥[TONE]