Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, my co-chairman and friend, 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. I don't think any of us could have imagined
a more well-organized conference or a more warm welcome than you
have given us here in Shanghai, and I would like everyone to join
me in expressing our thanks to you.
We have I think made some history at this conference. The
first thing is that it is the first international conference that
I've ever been to where the communiqué was not written in advance
of the conference, and we were struggling in the last period to try
and come up with what the conclusions were not based on what we
thought the conclusions should be, but actually what emerged from
the discussions.
And I think the beauty of the conference has been that all of us
have come to this conference in a way as students. We have
come with the belief that we all have something to learn from each
other and that there is no single message that emerges from this
meeting. Each one of us will take away something
different. And I will take away from it some programmatic
thrusts for the Bank and some things that I think I will do
differently, and it is my hope that every one of you will do
the same because I think the result of this conference is really a
personal one.
It will be one that each of us can draw lessons from. We know
that there is no silver bullet, there is no single way to achieve
our objectives. But I think we'll all go out from here with a
feeling that we have got a lot to learn from each other and that
mutual respect, and tolerance, and the understanding that we will
never achieve scaling up unless we work together is a message that
we can all (take) from this conference.
The other thing that I think is really important here is that we've
had the remarkable opportunity to look at China, which is a
particular experience in itself. How could we have found a
place to deal with scaling up that was more an example of scale
than China itself?
And so having the opportunity to be here as a yardstick has I think
been extraordinarily important and of great benefit to all of
us. But even our Chinese hosts would not suggest that
everything that has been done in China immediately applies in every
other country, nor would they I think suggest that there are things
that they could not benefit from in the debate and discussions with
all of us.
And the result of this remarkable interchange has been that there
are no heroes at this meeting, there are no leaders emerging.
Every one of you is a leader, and every one of you has made a
contribution. So, for those of us that took part in the
creation and the organization, I want to thank all of you for
coming and for contributing in as open a way as you have at these
discussions. The conference would not have been successful, as an
organizational matter, had it not been for the contribution that
each of you has made. And I'm personally very grateful to
you, and I know that I and my colleagues have learned a great deal
from this meeting.
I don't want to cover at length anything very much because it's
covered in the preamble that we put forth in the paper that's been
given to you, but I would like to make just two general
comments.
The first is that all of us has to work politically to ensure that
poverty and the alleviation of poverty is central on the global
agenda. I believe that today it is not central on the global
agenda. I believe that today lip service is given to the
question of poverty. There are safe statements made by just
about everybody about the issue of the Millennial Goals and about
poverty. But the real issues today that seem to be on the
mind of the world, terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, strains in the
Trans-Atlantic Alliance, budget deficits, parochial problems, the
visible problems that must be dealt with that are immediate, while
attention is given less to the equally inevitable and the equally
dangerous problems that come with poverty.
We must deal with the question of social equity and social
justice. Because without dealing with that question of
poverty, there can't be any peace, and US$900 billion being spent
on military expenditure, US$300 billion being spent on agricultural
subsidies, and US$50- or US$60 billion being spent on overseas
development assistance is one of the absurdities that we have to
change.
And so I think all of us have to go out of here with a certain
missionary zeal to try and remind people that poverty and the
environment in which we live are the real challenges for peace and
that we need to give them priority.
And the second, and last, thing I'd like to say is that we have
talked about economics, we have talked about advances that must be
made for social justice, and we've talked about steps that need to
be taken in empowerment and in the methodologies that we can use to
scale up.
But the one thing that we have not talked about and that I think
all of us need to recognize is that if we are to be effective in
advocating the case for poverty reduction, and hopefully
eradication, is that we have to do it with a sense of moral
principle, a sense of ethical principle, and 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.
We should not be afraid to say that there is a human content in
what we're doing, but there is also a moral and, if you like,
spiritual content in what we're doing. We are not here just
as economists. We are here because we owe every human being
in the world an opportunity and a chance to fulfill their
destiny.
And so going out from this meeting I hope that we're enriched with
the methodologies, we're enriched with the economics, but we can
also feel a little bit uplifted and a little bit responsible to go
out from here to deal with the question of scaling up of poverty
alleviation because it's right, and as members of the human race,
it's something that we should do.
Thank you very much to our hosts, and thank you all for being
here.
(China.org.cn May 27, 2004)