Malawi, 2004

I am delighted to be

participating, for the first time, in the deliberations of

the General Assembly as head of State and

Government of the Republic of Malawi.

I should like to begin by joining others who have

spoken before me in congratulating Mr. Jean Ping on

his assumption of the high office of President of the

General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. I have no

doubt that his election will provide an opportunity to

increase global awareness of the enormous challenges

that Africa and other less developed regions of the

world are facing. I hope that, through him, the

opportunity for the poor countries to fully participate

in world economic prosperity will be enhanced.

I also wish to avail myself of this opportunity to

pay tribute to his predecessor, Mr. Julian Robert Hunte,

for guiding the work of the fifty-eighth session with

admirable skill and pragmatism.

We also salute Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-

General of the United Nations, for the dynamic

leadership skills that he continues to display in steering

the affairs of the Organization.

I have entitled my statement 'Sharing global

prosperity'. I have done so in order to underscore the

fact that one of the most daunting challenges facing the

international community today is to achieve a balance

in economic transformation and growth between the

rich and the poor countries so as to eradicate poverty

among the latter.

In looking at the future of the United Nations, we

need to take stock of the response to world poverty. I

am aware that several attempts have been made by the

international community to alleviate poverty - and the

goal is still being pursued - but the results so far have

been dismal. During the past 30 years, for example, the

number of least developed countries has risen from 25

to 49. This means that globally, economic growth is in

reverse gear. Among the questions we are asking with

regard to the sharing of global prosperity is this: why

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are the industrialized countries more prosperous, while

in Africa and the rest of the developing countries

poverty is increasing? In other words, why has

globalization failed to achieve a more equitable

distribution of global prosperity?

In Malawi we have discovered that we need to

seriously transform our economic structures in order to

begin to provide and produce new wealth. This can be

achieved by transforming the abundant agricultural

commodities, raw materials and minerals into goods

that can be traded globally. It is only by creating new

wealth in rural areas that we can effectively eradicate

poverty.

Our major strategy is to gain a share in global

prosperity by transforming Malawi from being an

importing and consuming country to being a

predominantly producing and exporting country. In

other words, we must begin to position our economy to

take full advantage of global trade. This will be

achieved through intensive industrial research and the

application of science and technology to the specific

conditions in my country.

Malawi - as in the case of most African

countries - is richly endowed with a wide range of

agricultural primary commodities, good soil and water

resources that can enable us to develop viable agro-

processing and manufacturing industries. The critical

issue for us in Malawi, therefore, is the creation of new

wealth as the basis for poverty reduction. In order to do

that, we must encourage significant domestic savings,

as well as inflows of resources, especially foreign

direct investment.

We in Malawi estimate that in order to alleviate

poverty, we need to achieve an annual growth rate of at

least 6 per cent over the next decade. In order to

achieve that, we are determined to create conditions for

sustainable macroeconomic growth through

fundamental policy reforms to improve economic and

political governance. We have put in place measures

for the reform of the public sector, the agricultural

sector and the private sector.

We are also determined to improve good

governance by stamping out corruption. To that end,

we have adopted a zero-tolerance stance with regard to

corruption. I am therefore happy to have signed,

yesterday, the United Nations Convention against

Corruption.

Malawi is cognizant of the fact that our national

vision must be fully supported by the international

community. That is why Malawi joins the call for

better market access and lower tariff and non-tariff

barriers to trade in industrialized countries.

Malawi would therefore like to stress the need to

advance the dialogue in the Doha development agenda.

For their part, the industrialized nations need to

seriously address the major concerns of the poor

economies. The challenge for industrialized countries

is therefore to share with the poor countries the

prosperity that comes about through globalization, by

assisting us to stand on our own and to develop

appropriate technologies for transforming our

agricultural raw materials, minerals and other natural

resources into wealth. In Malawi, we believe that a

partner who walks with you side-by-side down the road

is better than one whom you have to carry on your

shoulders. We want to walk with the industrialized

nations; we do not want to be carried on their

shoulders.

Some positive efforts that Malawi welcomes

towards global equity include the various initiatives

taken by the Group of Eight countries aimed at

addressing some of the concerns to which I have just

referred. Among those are the United Kingdomís

decision to significantly increase its aid and technical

assistance to Africa; the reaffirmation of strong support

for the New Partnership for Africa's Development; the

decision by the United States Government to extend

the African Growth and Opportunity Act from 2008 to

2015; and the European Union's 'Everything But

Arms' initiative, which seeks to enhance opportunities

for increased access for African exports into the

European market.

Those initiatives are, indeed, encouraging, and

my Government fully appreciates them. I wish,

however, to appeal for those noble promises and

commitments to be matched by action. We need proof

that actions speak louder than words.

The management of foreign debt is another

positive way in which global prosperity can be shared.

Our concern is that, in spite of numerous initiatives

aimed at finding a durable solution to the debt

problem, the world is nowhere near that solution. My

Government is still allocating a significant amount of

our resources to debt-servicing at the expense of

investment in infrastructure, production and income

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generation. Such diversion of resources has led, among

other things, to the deepening of poverty and a lack of

significant macroeconomic growth.

However, Malawi, like other eligible African

countries, had welcomed arrangements for debt relief

under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)

Debt Initiative. But the conditions for reaching the

decision and completion points are so arduous that

only a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa have

managed to reach the completion stage. We believe that

the preconditions for the HIPC Initiative are

unrealistic. Surely, less stringent conditionalities would

have enabled more countries to succeed.

That notwithstanding, Malawi welcomes the

measures by some bilateral donors to respond to the

external debt crisis. In particular, I must mention the

Government of Japan, which, a few weeks ago,

cancelled a debt Malawi owed it, amounting to $256

million. I take this opportunity to thank Japan most

sincerely for that gesture. We hope that other

industrialized countries will follow this example.

I referred earlier to the need for adequate donor

support to sustain national initiatives. In that regard, I

believe that the New Partnership for Africaís

Development (NEPAD) provides a framework for

sharing the responsibility for economic development

between Africa and the rich countries. It is for that

reason that Malawi has acceded to NEPADís African

Peer Review Mechanism in a bid to put in place

internationally accepted political and economic good

governance. Our accession to the African Peer Review

Mechanism is also a demonstration of our confidence

in the NEPAD programme as a tool to enhance Africaís

effective participation in global prosperity.

Let me now turn to a global challenge that

threatens all development efforts. This is the

HIV/AIDS pandemic. The HIV/AIDS pandemic

continues to pound incessantly upon the African

economies, destroying the capacity of many countries

to achieve sustainable economic development. Because

it affects the most productive segment of our labour

force, we are losing more qualified and experienced

personnel much faster than we can train new ones.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a human tragedy of

unimaginable proportions. Experience in dealing with

this disaster in my country has taught us that

HIV/AIDS is a medical crisis, an economic crisis, a

social crisis and a political crisis. It is a medical crisis

because no cure has yet been found for HIV/AIDS. It is

an economic crisis because it is depleting financial and

human resources for development while also

devastating our national capacities for good

governance. HIV/AIDS is a social crisis because of the

stigma that makes the affected unable to be integrated

into normal day-to-day relations as well as in the work

places. HIV/AIDS has also created a large number of

orphans that need to be cared for. HIV/AIDS is a

political crisis because it threatens democratic

institutions by killing politicians and others who are

the voice of the people.

Therefore, in order to deal with this pandemic,

we have learned the imperative of adopting a holistic

approach. It is for that reason that we appeal to the

United Nations to collectively raise new awareness,

new assumptions and new solutions. To that end, the

United Nations ought to redesign its policy in

providing support, care, treatment and prevention of

HIV/AIDS, alongside the provision of adequate,

nutritious food and a proper diet.

Before concluding my statement, I wish to raise

another concern I have concerning the efforts towards

sustainable growth and the development of the world.

This relates to the need for world peace. One can

hardly emphasize enough that, without global peace,

there cannot be global prosperity. In that regard, I

would like to welcome the efforts made by the

Secretary-General, jointly with the Security Council, in

taking a number of decisive steps towards conflict

prevention, resolution and management around the

globe.

Turning to the specific issues of peace in Africa, I

am concerned that sub-Saharan Africa has been and

continues to be one of the most unstable and conflict-

prone regions of the globe. The region also happens to

be home to most of the worldís poorest people, who are

living below the international poverty line.

The conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, in

particular, is yet another sad chapter in the history of

sub-Saharan Africa and one that the African people can

ill afford. Africa and the international community must

find quick and lasting solutions to the crisis in the

Darfur region.

I would like to conclude my statement by

assuring the General Assembly that my Government

fully endorses the proposals to reform the United

Nations. We share the belief that a more representative

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and democratic United Nations will enhance the

efficiency and credibility of this global Organization. It

will also enhance the efforts towards a just and more

equitable sharing of global prosperity.

May God bless the United Nations.