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G8, emerging donors open development talks in Japan

“We cannot let the international and domestic economic concerns deter us from meeting our development commitments. ”

Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Development ministers from the richest nations as well as those of the fastest growing economies kicked off two days of talks yesterday on ways to ease suffering in Africa and other impoverished nations.

Officials from the G8 industrialized nations, along with Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa gathered here to discuss how to bolster their efforts in foreign development aid.

Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said world powers must not allow the gloomy global economic outlook to distract them from fighting poverty because the consequences would be dire.

“We cannot let the international and domestic economic concerns deter us from meeting our development commitments,” he told reporters in Tokyo.

“This is because poverty is the ultimate systemic risk. It is a breeding ground for the proliferation of terrorism, armed conflicts, environmental degradation, cross-border diseases and organized crime,” he said.

The G8 Development Ministers’ Meeting 2008 — which aims to lay the groundwork for a summit of G8 leaders in Japan’s northern resort of Toyako in July — comes amid growing concern about rising food prices that are adding to the burden of some of the world’s poorest citizens.

“The international community is closely watching results of the Toyako summit,” Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told the meeting. “As G8 development ministers, we want to send a strong message to the international community so that we can provide beneficial input for discussions of our leaders.”

Experts say that more investment is needed in agriculture to try to address food shortages.

“The agriculture sector has been starved of infrastructure investment,” Ifzal Ali, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, said last week.

The OECD said on Friday that most major donors need to step up efforts to meet their stated aid commitments.

British charity Oxfam said the figures showed that rich countries had broken promises made to substantially increase assistance to developing countries.

“These figures don’t lie,” Jeremy Hobbs of Oxfam International said.

“They show a clear lack of leadership on bringing much-needed funding to poor countries,” he said, calling on Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US to take urgent action at the G8 summit in three months’ time.

Japan was the world’s top aid donor until 2000, but slipped to rank fifth among the world’s 22 major donors last year, the OECD says.

“It was extremely regrettable that Japan’s [support] declined by one-third from 2006,” Komura said.

“I’m determined to stop this downward trend of Japan’s official development assistance and put it up,” he said.

G8 nations this weekend will also urge “more transparency of aid policies by new donors,” a senior Japanese government official said.

Emerging nations will also be pressed “to act in a more responsible manner in terms of good governance, sustainability of aid and consideration for democratization,” the official said.Western critics have accused China of worsening repression and human-rights abuses in Africa through its aid while seeking to increase access to African oil and other resources, but Beijing says its aid is transparent and fair.
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