Mubarak urges rich countries to promote global development
Egypt-Regional, Economics, 9/4/2002

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak yesterday has reiterated the need to offer the Palestinians a fair opportunity to achieve sustainable development. In his address to the Earth Summit, read out on his behalf by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Faiza Abul Naga, Mubarak said the end of occupation and the rise of an independent Palestinian state were prerequisites for any viable development in the Palestinian areas. He asserted that the Israeli atrocities violated the basic principles of human rights.

ÊÊÊ Mubarak explained that holding the second summit on sustainable development in Africa attested to the continent's commitment to creating the circumstances needed to promote sustainable development.

ÊÊÊ He explained that Egypt was committed to the resolutions of the Rio De Janeiro summit in 1992 and tried to surmount the obstacles impeding development. He said Egypt did its best to overcome the scarcity of resources, the lack of technical know-how and the inadequate planning skills.

ÊÊÊ It also took a series of measures to make optimal use of foreign donations and is pursuing tremendous efforts to improve its investment climate to be able to woo foreign investments into the country.

ÊÊÊ "Egypt and the Arab countries cooperated to design a plan for sustainable development taking into consideration the existing potential of every country and the resources available to the region," he said.

ÊÊÊ The President indicated that the Earth Summit in 1992 asserted that development was a collective responsibility.

ÊÊÊ "The industrialized nations shared a hefty part of this responsibility because they possess advanced technologies which are not available to less developed countries," he said.

ÊÊÊ He also emphasized that it was a sad fact that the very little has been achieved along the road of sustainable development in the last decade, especially with dwindling assistance earmarked for this process.

He added that the principles underlying the summit were by all means noble, but asserted that the success of these ideas depended on the commitment of the participants to the programs and plans of actions produced by the summit.

ÊÊÊ "The developed countries must rise up to the responsibilities which they willingly accepted in the last summit to activate development operations," he said, urging developed countries to ease their protectionist policies and remove non-tariff barriers impeding trade.

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