Jamster Posted June 17, 2005 Statement by the President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somali Republic at the Second South Summit of the Group of 77 and China - Friday, June 17, 2005 at 18:48 STATEMENT BY H.E. ABDULLAHI YUSUF AHMED PRESIDENT OF THE TRANSITIONAL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE SOMALI REPUBLIC AT THE SECOND SOUTH SUMMIT OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA DOHA, QATAR 16 JUNE 2005 Mr Chairman, I would like to start by thanking you for facilitating our work and at the same time I would very much like to thank the government and people of Qatar for hosting this august gathering and for all the arrangements made and the extended hospitality to the participants. I take this opportunity also to convey to you all my greetings and the greetings of my delegation and the people of Somalia who have not been able to participate fully in international gatherings for the past 14 years or so. I am sure you are all aware of the plight of the Somali people since the collapse of the Somali Central Government in 1990-1991. With the formation of our Government, that is the current Transitional Federal Government (TFG), we are now in a position to take our rightful position in the international community. Your Highness /Mr President, We are glad to tell you that our government relocated to Somalia on 13 June 2005 after our stay in Nairobi for nearly eight months, and very soon we will be making every effort to bring peace and stability as well as to rehabilitate and reconstruct our country. In this connection, I stand before you to thank sincerely all governments and peoples and organisations that assisted us in one way or another during our difficult moments. I assure you we will remember them all. Mr President, The Transitional Federal Government of the Somali Republic values the work and goals of both the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 and China. We will do everything we can to participate in their deliberations and support their goals. We also appreciate the economic and political cooperation of the South-South developing countries. Mr President, As we are all aware, the international community has declared 2000 the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDGs have our full support. Due to the aftermath of the protracted civil war, the Somali Republic will not be able to attain all these goals unless it is adequately supported to that end. However, we pledge that we will spare no effort to pursue the attainment of the MDGs. Mr President, In order to accelerate development, we need to take appropriate measures internally and externally. On the one hand, developing countries, and especially the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), will need to engage in a genuine reform program of investment in education and health. We need to fight corrosive corruption, upgrade institutions, improve governance and safeguard human rights consistently. Mr President, We cannot only emphasize the measures that need to be taken internally; in the interest of attaining meaningful development, we must also recognize that the international community should help in removing obstacles in the way of developing countries. The biggest obstacle appears to be the debt-traps that are strangling the economies of the Third World countries. We strongly recommend that we collectively seek: the complete cancellation of the DEBTS of the Least Developed Countries Substantial reduction of the DEBTS of the middle-income countries. Mr President, There is a lot of talk these days about the virtues of globalization. Again our position is that what we need is not mere globalization but fair globalization. Poor countries and especially LDCs should be in a position to take positive measures to uplift agriculture and industrial production and take advantage of their relative cheap labor. If capital is to move freely, we should also advocate the free and natural movement of labor. This is ultimately in the best interest of both developing and developed nations. Mr President, I would like to emphasize the importance of the G77 and NAM trying very hard to arrive at common stands in the various meetings and especially at the forthcoming high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in New York in September 2005. My government stands to play a positive role in this direction. Mr President, We take this opportunity to congratulate the G77 for the progress made so far and their determination to cooperate in all economic spheres. But we still have a long way to go. I am confident that the South-South cooperation will grow and that existing barriers will crumble. Mr President, Finally, I would like to end with a note of where we are in Somalia right now and what we intend to do so you can have a real feel for our present situation. After the years of civil war, disappearance of the central government and destruction of so much infrastructure, institutions, property and lives, the Transitional Federal Government of the Somali Republic faces a daunting task. We have to bring anarchy to an end, restore law and order and reestablish peace and stability throughout the country. We have to rehabilitate and reconstruct our basic economic infrastructure and vital social services. We have to reverse the brain drain. We have to protect our resources and the environment and remove industrial and nuclear toxic wastes dumped on our shores. Mr President, We want to learn from our harsh experience of the last 14 years. We want to avoid an over-centralized government. We want to decentralize administration and unleash local energies and the private initiative. Indeed, during the demise of central government in the last 14 years, the private sector has made significant progress in many fields. We want to build on that progress and regulate only where there is obvious need to regulate. Government will not be involved in areas where the private sector has been clearly successful. Finally, I will end by saying that I have full faith in the future of the Somali Republic. I appeal to the Group of 77 and China to help us translate this vision into the reality of the 21st Century. ...End... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
