Prime Minister Vajpayee's speech at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit

February 07, 2001

    I am happy to be with all of you this morning at this important summit on sustainable development. I am gratified by the presence here of many eminent participants, from both developed and developing countries, besides senior representatives of key international organizations and NGOs.

    I congratulate the Tata Energy Research Institute for three praiseworthy features of this summit. First, the Delhi Summit seeks to amplify the voice of developing countries in the worldwide debate on this important subject. Second, the main theme of the summit is eradication of poverty, which is also the core issue that globalization must address. Lastly, I commend the organizers for recognizing that poverty is a global challenge, not only for governments, but also for industry, scientists, and the whole civil society.

    The past decade was marked by two landmark events. The Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 placed sustainable development on top of the global agenda. Never before had the world community acknowledged so powerfully that development is either sustainable, or it cannot be called "development" at all. Three years later, in 1995, the World Trade Organization came into being, which formalized the advent of a global market.

    Since then the debate on globalization and sustainable development has grown, both in its dimensions and dynamism. There is an increasing awareness that only concerted and coordinated global action can meet the challenges of poverty alleviation, environment protection, and balanced development.

    For meaningful and effective global action, we must, first of all, recognize the magnitude of global iniquities. The World Development Indicators of the World Bank indicate that a sixth of the world’s people receives 78 percent of world income, which amounts to $70 a day. At the same time, three-fifths of the world’s people living in the poorest 61 countries receive only 6 percent of the world’s income, which is less than $2 a day.

    Several stark facts about global poverty stare us in our face at the dawn of the age of globalization. The percentage of people living below the poverty line may have come down in several countries—as it indeed has in India. However, the relative gap between the rich and the poor has widened, both within nations and amongst nations. The benefits of technology, trade, and other opportunities presented by globalization have spread unevenly. As a result, the rate at which poverty is being eradicated has not kept pace with the rate at which the rich are getting richer.

    It is equally clear that poverty can no longer be seen exclusively in static income terms. What matters more than income levels is the access, or lack of it, to entitlements and opportunities for a happy life. Deprivation of normal family and community relationships, and lack of opportunities to advance one’s own cultural life, have also become important features of poverty in modern times. For example, an urban migrant worker living in a dehumanizing and impersonal slum may earn more than what he was when living in a village in a harmonious social and natural milieu. But, he cannot be considered to be living a better and fulfilling life.

    Both the magnitude and the changing meaning of poverty have made one thing clear. Poverty cannot be removed by the traditional strategy of income enhancement of all, in the simplistic hope that higher incomes will naturally buy all the necessary entitlements. Consumerism of the super-rich has become a curse for the global environment. We can hardly hope to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by globalizing this curse. It is impossible for the lifestyles of rich nations to be replicated all over the world without putting a ruinous pressure on the earth’s limited resources.

    Just as we have become more aware of the meaning of poverty, so too have we become more sensitive to the meaning of development. More and more people around the world are wondering if we are losing sight of man and his deeper aspirations in the one-dimensional race for economic growth. Industrial civilization has led to unprecedented levels of material wealth. At the same time, it has also brought about an unprecedented imbalance between material and psychological affluence.

    The world community cannot be blind to the implications of this imbalance. Therefore, in the new century, the world needs to put more emphasis on the realization of new lifestyles, driven by a set of values that emphasize compassion, cooperation, care of the environment, and the joy of living.

    Distinguished delegates, all of us know that a narrowly-focused economic model can neither remove global poverty nor yield sustainable development. At the same time, we cannot belittle the importance of restructuring the economic relations between and within countries. What we need is a comprehensive and holistic global strategy, which involves the fullest mobilization of all our economic, social, cultural, and technological resources.

    In this context, I wish to put before you a few thoughts for your consideration.

    First, there is a need to substantially increase the resources of governments in developing countries to pursue developmental projects and programmes aimed specifically at poverty eradication. The resources of multilateral and bilateral development agencies also need to be significantly enhanced. This calls for a far higher level of political will in industrialized countries than is manifest today. In particular, I would like developed countries to cooperate in speedy conclusion of the international agreement on climate change.

    Second, it is high time that we considered imposition of an international levy on capital flows between developed countries, and all capital repatriations from developing countries. The proceeds may be credited to a Global Poverty Alleviation Fund, which could have the following objectives.

    The accelerated liquidation of all public external debts of low-income countries.

    Poverty alleviation programmes specifically targeted at those who have lost their livelihoods in economic crises brought about by reversal of external capital flows in developing countries.

    Enhancement of skills and increased access to finance needed by the poor to compete effectively in the global economy.

    Placing technologies that save lives, increase food yields, generate renewable energy for rural areas, and facilitate the adoption of clean production, in the public domain, for use by developing countries.

    Third, technology – especially, information technology – has created a massive growth in productivity. IT has also proved to be a revolutionary tool for education, health-care and sustainable development. However, the unequal access to IT has given rise to legitimate fears of a "Digital Divide". We need collective global action to speedily bridge the gap between IT haves and have-nots. In this context, India is ready to offer our expertise to others. We are also willing to learn from others’ successful experiences.

    Fourth, there is also a need for greater global cooperation to deal with natural calamities, especially in developing countries. The poor always lose proportionately much more than the rich in natural calamities. Information and critical technologies that can prevent disasters, contain their damage, and help in better management of relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, should be available to all countries. In this context, I gratefully acknowledge the generous help that India has received from the international community after the devastating earthquake in Gujarat last month.

    I am happy that TERI has brought out an excellent publication called DISHA to mark the Delhi Summit on Sustainable Development. It focuses on green technologies, the use of market-based instruments, a new code of ethics for the corporate sector, and effective governance at all levels. As the book persuasively argues, government, civil society, research institutions, and the corporate sector will have to work in partnership to reach the goals that we set ourselves for the future.

    In particular, we need the participation of the people in all aspects of sustainable development, whether it is community-run water harvesting, or it is in replacing older transport vehicles with newer pollution-free CNG vehicles, or in removing polluting industries from residential areas, to name three recent issues. In this, Governments and NGOs have to work in close cooperation with each other.

    For instance, the Gujarat Government’s Sardar Patel Participatory Water Conservation Programme, launched in January 2000, has successfully led to the creation of nearly 10,500 check dams built with people’s participation. The media too has an important role to play in highlighting the imperative of such constructive partnership.

    Friends, you will deliberate on many important issues relating to sustainable development during the three-day summit. The participants from India can learn much from the international experience. At the same time, I am sure that the distinguished foreign delegates will also get a better appreciation of India's experience in poverty eradication and sustainable development.

    With these words, I have great pleasure in inaugurating this summit.

Thank you.