International Herald Tribune
Saturday, January 25, 2003

The Group of Eight

PARIS. With France taking over the presidency of the Group of Eight, it's time to consider how the industrialized nations can bring about better conditions for growth and welfare worldwide, not just for themselves. It's not a question of the G-8 setting the world's agenda, it's about building awareness, about action and impetus. For globalization creates a common destiny for all humanity and makes us all dependent on one another. The major economies ignore that reality at their peril.

When the G-8 meets in Evian in June, France's goal will be to promote greater responsibility, solidarity, security and democracy in these ways:

First, responsibility. France proposes that G-8 leaders affirm in Evian the principles of a responsible market economy geared to sustainable development. Globalization is a force for growth and development, yet its power to destabilize threatens the environment and poor countries. We cannot stand idly by.

Responsibility here means corporate and financial transparency. It means social and ethical responsibility, refraining from causing harm to people, from abusing positions of power and from tolerating corruption. It means responsibility toward our over-exploited and threatened environment, doing more to promote scientific research and technological innovation on its behalf. By acting responsibly, we will avoid the worst evils of globalization. We will bolster confidence and thus growth, while giving our children better ways of production and consumption that will be kinder to our planet.

Second, solidarity. Globalization spells greater interdependence. Rich countries' future is increasingly tied to that of the poor countries. That thinking inspires the partnerships formed last year at international conferences in Johannesburg and Monterrey, Mexico. To roll back poverty, poor countries pledge to follow sound policies, while rich countries pledge to supply the resources and build the conditions needed for development. In Evian, we must drive forward this new alliance for sustainable development.

We have a special duty to work for Africa's economic revival by following up on the highly ambitious plan adopted at the G-8 conference in Canada last year in conjunction with the African leaders who established the New Partnership for Africa's Development. We should also work on a major goal set at the United Nations Johannesburg conference on sustainable development: to halve by 2015 the number of people who have no drinking water or sewerage.

We also must agree on how to improve the health of the poor. It is intolerable that billions of poor people are without access to medicine. It is a humanitarian issue, but it also raises economic and security concerns. Treatments exist for AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases; the solutions are there, and we must agree to put them into effect.

Third, security. In Evian, we should intensify our measures against international terrorism. The G-8 has been playing its part, within the UN framework and with the competent international institutions, to fight this scourge. We have adopted guidelines for improved security in transport, tougher measures against terrorist financing and ways to prevent terrorists from gaining access to nuclear, chemical and bacteriological weapons. We can do more.

Fourth, democracy. We need a broader mechanism for informal dialogue embracing emerging and poor nations. Contacts are in progress to start the Evian conference with a gathering of about 25 world leaders for a free-ranging discussion on globalization and world governance.

I also intend to encourage vigorous, orderly dialogue with civil society, consistent with the demands of democracy, in the run-up to Evian. Globalization is creating a society in which people are demanding their say on all sorts of issues, and businesses and nonprofit organizations, not just states, are prominent actors. I favor the emergence of a social dimension to globalization, and I am watching closely the proceedings at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Today, humanity is discovering a common future. Our task is to steer this toward the fulfillment of the universal ideals of democracy, justice, wealth and happiness, our core values.

The writer is president of France.