Addressing an international conference on financing for development in Doha, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said that "experience has taught us that no crisis can be overcomed by damage control or cosmetic measures."
Addressing an international conference on financing for development in Doha, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said that "experience has taught us that no crisis can be overcomed by damage control or cosmetic measures."
"Deep changes have always been necessary," and rules must be such that poor countries can have a chance to develop, too, the Croatian head of state said at the UN conference in Qatar, which is a follow-up conference of the first UN-sponsored summit-level meeting on financial and related issues pertaining to global development, held in Monterey, Mexico in March 2002.
The heads of state or government who gathered in Doha are expected to give key recommendations for encouraging development and trade and for mobilising national resources and constructing an efficient international financial architecture. President Mesic urged for the announced important changes in the world economic order. "This does not mean that I am advocating the abandonment of globalisation or liberalisation of international trade. I am not, nor would that be possible. However, let me make this concluding point: the rules must also give poor countries an adequate opportunity for development," the Croatian president said. Stating that the development of these countries ground to a halt in a period coinciding with the prevalence of the so-called neoliberal economic model, President Mesic stated that the predictions by theoreticians that the neo-liberal model "would balance out wages in the global economy, and that poor countries would develop faster than the rich ones" did not materialise.
"Quite the contrary - the gap between the poor and the rich has even widened", he said."Although a small country of relatively modest material potential, Croatia has always been prepared to provide its own contribution to the creation of a more equitable and more humane world order," Croatian President pointed out at the end of his speech.
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