South Faces Serious Challenges, G-77 Leader Says

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, chairman of the Group of 77 (G-77), Wednesday claimed that the developing South is facing grave challenges in their efforts to seek the access to the world politics and global economy in justice and equity.

Delivering his speech at the opening ceremony of the first South Summit, Obasanjo said the globalization process is marginalizing the South, which are plunged into the intra-state conflicts, the crushing debt burdens and increasing marginalization in the tide of globalization of the world economy.

"We must acknowledge, if in frustration, that most of the resolutions remain a dead-letter, that many important issues have been shifted to the forum outside the U.N. system," he said. "We are confronted, in general, with a weakening role for the U. N. in vital areas of war and peace, and economic and financial decision-making for world economy," he said. "We still have a long way to go."

Obasanjo made the remarks after the opening ceremony of the first South Summit, which comes in the largest gathering of heads of state and government of the Group of 77 (G-77) since its 1964 founding in Geneva.

The Nigerian president said that the South Summit marks the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the new millennium. "We must devise the stratagem to cope with these challenges" at the turn of the century, he said.

Describing G-77 as "an effective negotiating force within the U. N. system," he said, the body has been focusing its efforts on such issues as trade, finance, social development and environmental protection.

Therefore, "the South must take part in fully and actively in the management of the international financial architecture," he said.

"The collective management of the future globalization activities must be guided by the prerequisite that prosperity for all and marginalization for none," he said.

Developing countries face today the challenge of formulating a common vision and constructing a platform for collective action in order to achieve a comprehensive formulation and forceful articulation of their shared concerns and objectives.

The current Havana Summit is a unique opportunity to renew the South's commitment to South-South cooperation and define an action plan with clear targets and a time frame for its effective implementation.

In order to ensure remarkable progress against the marginalization, Obasanjo called for "an effective role" of the United Nations to defend the collective interests of the South, whose population make an undoubted majority of the world total. "Peace, security, development and cooperation are inexorably linked, and cannot be dealt with in isolation," he said.

The United Nations, which has the primary responsibility for the maintain of world peace and security under the U.N. Charter, must be empowered to play an effective role in fields necessary to defend the collective interests of the South, he said.

G-77, set up by 77 developing countries in June 1964 in Geneva, has seen its membership growing to 133 countries, and the original name was retained due to its historic significance.

As the largest Third World coalition in the United Nations, G- 77 is aimed at providing the means for the developing world to articulate and promote its collective interests and enhance its joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues in the U.N. system, and promote economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.

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