Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
Millions of people around the world have lost faith that the world economy can improve their lives. Instead of seeing value in open borders and the free exchange of information and ideas, they see only uncertainty about their futures, growing inequalities and weak productivity gains. Too few people benefit from new technologies that connect us and make the world smaller, and too many face the specter of terror and conflict, forced migration and rising xenophobia. With globalization in retreat, this dampened mood is holding back the potential of trade, finance, technology and investment to improve lives.
In the developing world, significant headwinds now cloud growth prospects, threatening to undo hard fought development gains.
In Asia, with weak external demand and the global trade slowdown, many value chains are set to shorten and the gains from industrialization look more difficult to reap. Corporate and household debts are rising, and many previously fast-growing economies now face what some are calling the "middle-income trap".
In Africa, we are seeing a sharp reversal of the frontier market “Africa rising” narrative amidst the end of the commodity super cycle, a drying up of capital inflows, and rising public and corporate debt. Security threats and failed states are adding to the complexity, and the largest wave of migrants in more than 70 years is being driven out of the continent.
In Latin America, the region’s dedication to inclusiveness is now confronted by the prospect of another lost decade; lower commodity prices, capital outflows and declining living standards for the middle class are forcing governments to re-assess the achievements of the last boom period and how to reignite industrialization.
In the developed world, globalization has left in its wake two related, major structural problems – increased inequalities and slowing productivity growth. Stagnant median incomes have sparked a backlash against migration in Europe and explain the anti-trade tone dominating the U.S. presidential election campaign. Many of the recent Brexit votes to leave the European Union were cast by voters who feel left behind by globalization.
Whistleblower leaks – like Panama Papers – are also compounding the distrust that people have in political and economic institutions, revealing how international trade and investment can be riddled with illicit flows, hidden transactions and tax havens – at times even with the complicity of political leaders.
This dampened global mood gives substantial cause for international concern. At the United Nations, we contrast the current pessimism with the three major optimistic achievements of multilateralism agreed last year in 2015: the Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference in July, the summit in New York on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September, and the COP-21 climate change conference in Paris end-November. For us, implementing these agreements from last year as quickly as possible is the best way to confront the growing gloom that we are seeing.
We need to turn last year's optimism towards restoring the economy's ability to deliver prosperity with a shift in paradigm and approach. That is why the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed as a part of the 2030 Agenda last year are so important. The SDGs offer a blueprint for how our economy, our societies and our environment should look in 2030. And if we take the Goals seriously, the SDGs can become an effective yardstick for monitoring the inclusiveness of global prosperity.
The 14th U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD 14) in Nairobi from July 17-22 is critical for taking the 2030 Agenda forward. International cooperation in trade, finance, technology and investment are a major emphasis of the SDGs. At Nairobi, United Nations member States will agree collectively on their international engagement on these issues for the next four years. At Nairobi world leaders will address how to reboot global trade growth, including through services trade, e-commerce and regional agreements. They will also move toward more international cooperation in tackling tax evasion, reforming investment governance, and improving international governance of debt. CEOs, investors, and business leaders also have an important role at Nairobi; the UNCTAD World Investment Forum will rally more productive investment in the countries and sectors that need at most.
The first statistical report from a United Nations agency on the SDGs will also be launched by UNCTAD in Nairobi. The Development and Globalization Facts and Figures report will be the first United Nations assessment benchmarking the trade, finance, technology and investment gaps, which need to be closed by 2030.
The entire world is invited to join our efforts at Nairobi to help revive the constructive mood that will lead to prosperity, dignity and a better planet. Together we can reinvigorate trade, finance, technology and investment as positive forces to end poverty and leave no one behind. Our collective efforts in these areas can renew our spirit of international engagement. Let us put the SDGs to work monitoring the inclusiveness of global growth and restoring the hope for prosperity for all that globalization presents us.
© Japan Today
5 Comments
Login to comment
sangetsu03
The author overlooks the point that the only major change in the dynamics of industrialized economies has been greater public sector consumption of GDP. With public spending doubling or tripling in some countries over the past decades; the capital required to create private sector companies, jobs, and higher wages has diminished.
The main difference between public and private sector spending is that the latter does to in order to create a positive return, while with the former, negative returns are normal. Without an overall positive return on spending and investment, there can be no economic growth, period. And with no economic growth, there cannot be more jobs, higher wages, and an improving quality of life.
In addition to this, the focus of public spending, and the necessity of paying for this spending has aggravated the problem. Public spending mainly subsidizes the poor at the expense of the more wealthy, in effect, rewarding poverty and punishing success. If those in poverty are subsidized to the point that they see less necessity to improve their lot by educating themselves, or learning a trade, they won't bother. And those who aspire to success, but see the cost as been to high, also won't bother.
The end result of this is what we see; more living in poverty, the middle class declining, as there is less motivation for those living in poverty to improve themselves and climb into the middle class, while there are fewer jobs which pay middle class wages as the tax burden on the wealthy is passed down to their customers and employees.
We need to get past the ingrained belief that we are incapable of caring for ourselves or attaining success without the intervention of the state. So long as we think this, the only way to be secure or enjoy economic success will to be employed by the state.
Wakarimasen
The entire world is invited to join our efforts at Nairobi to help revive the constructive mood that will lead to prosperity, dignity and a better planet. Together we can reinvigorate trade, finance, technology and investment as positive forces to end poverty and leave no one behind. Our collective efforts in these areas can renew our spirit of international engagement. Let us put the SDGs to work monitoring the inclusiveness of global growth and restoring the hope for prosperity for all that globalization presents us
UNCTAD eh? They can make the world a better place, eh? good job so far. This is just a load of hot air - meaningless and will do nothing to change the slowly dying current world order.
JeffLee
Globalization, free trade, free-market policies and tax cuts for the rich have given the developed world two things: stagnation, if not contraction, plus chronic inequality .
The paradigm shift started in the 80s, and then the decline ensued. No one is asking why. LIke why middle class people needed only one income in the past, but 2 incomes now. Clearly, we are on the wrong policy path.
John-San
This head line make out that the economy is a God or deity. Lost faith as no meaning to a atheist. To invest in a financial venture, is gambling which is having confidence in a produce not having faith in a produce. If these people think this way. they must think that anything margin below 30% is a lost. I will lost confidence when the Margin is below 10% but I still realise that any margin over 0 % is a profit. Well is was when I was at school. If they back off on the greed element, they would not see the future so deem but bright as long as you are making a profit.
sangetsu03
This is so funny. Does the world have more financial inequality when globalization has pulled more than 2 billion people in developing countries out of poverty?
As for tax cuts for the rich, how much do the rich pay compared to you? The top 10% of income earners pay 70% of all tax collected. The top 1% pay almost 40% of all taxes collected. In the England, the top 3000 income earners pay more tax than the bottom 9 million. You obviously have no idea what the word "fair" means. My tax bill is certainly higher than your income, if you are an English teacher, your salary is a fraction of my tax bill. The rich create the jobs which pay our salaries, and as you increase the tax burden on the rich, it does two things, makes it harder to become rich, and removes the motivation for doing so. And when fewer people aspire to wealth, those people don't bother to create the businesses and result jobs which create wealth, and you end up with stagnation, inequality, and a declining middle class. As usual, you have things completely backwards.
You are of the type who believes that the rich become rich at the expense of the poor, which is opposite to the truth. By eliminating the rich, you will not reduce the number of the poor, the numbers of the poor will increase. You seem to think that government is the answer to everyone's problems, and that the government will protect you from the evil gluttony and greed of the rich. But you conveniently overlook that those politicians who you prefer to corporate executives are far more gluttonous and greedy, because they are not limited to spending their own money, but are free to spend almost limitlessly the public's money.
The type of system you advocated has been tried over and over again, and failed over and over again. No doubt you cheered when Hugo Chavez become presidents of Venezuela on his promises to take from the rich and give to the poor, when in the end, he took from both and gave to himself, making his family the richest in the country.
You need to concentrate on teaching English, and not making comments on things you can't comprehend.