Tempat/Venue : JAKARTA, INDONESIA
Tarikh/Date : 30-05-2001
Tajuk/Title : THE INAUGURAL SESSION OF THE
ELEVENTH SUMMIT OF THE G-15
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
It gives me great pleasure to be in Jakarta to
join other leaders of the Group of Fifteen at our
annual Summit. I am particularly honoured to be given
the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Asian member
countries. Let me first congratulate you, Mr.
President, on your assumption of the Chairmanship of
the Group of Fifteen. We would like to express our
heartfelt thanks to you for the warm welcome and
generous hospitality accorded to us since our arrival
in Jakarta. We are also deeply appreciative of all the
efforts made by Indonesia to ensure a successful
outcome for this Summit.
2. On behalf of the leaders of the Asian member
states, I would also like to welcome His Excellency,
Deputy President Dr. Hassan Habibi of the Islamic
Republic of Iran and His Excellency, Vice President
Gustavo Bell Lemus of Colombia to this Summit Meeting.
We sincerely believe that with the admission of the
Islamic Republic of Iran and Colombia, the Group of
Fifteen will be further strengthened. I am confident
that the Islamic Republic of Iran and Colombia will
have many useful ideas to share and initiatives to
advance.
3. This Summit in Jakarta comes at a very crucial time
for the developing countries in general and G-15 in
particular. Clearly, every aspect of our lives and the
manner countries are conducting their relations have been
affected by the march of globalisation, which has been
accelerated by the revolution in information and
communication technology (ICT). While we do not deny
that globalisation brings benefits, we have also
to acknowledge the challenges and the risks that
unfettered globalisation has brought. We have to manage
the challenges and be wary of the risks if we do not wish
to be marginalised.
4. There is no doubt that globalisation has exacerbated
the vulnerabilities of developing countries and eroded
their national policy-making capacity.In the area of trade,
for instance, developing countries h ave been unable to
overcome the inequitable and declining terms of trade
against that of the developed countries. Yet developed
countries continue to push the developing countries to
further liberalise their trade regardless of whether or
not their economies are ready or able to cope with the
process.
5. Aside from being already disadvantaged by the
imbalances contained in the Uruguay Round agreements,
developing countries are being pressured into agreeing
to a new round of WTO negotiations, incorporating new
issues demanded by deve loped countries. Indeed if these
new issues were to be included, developing countries would
ultimately lose whatever limited policy discretion they
still possess in pursuing their development dimension and
nation-building process.
6. In the financial sector, despite the painful lessons
that should be drawn from the Asian financial crisis,
we have been disappointed with the little progress made
to reform the international financial architecture.
Sad to say, the focus has tended to be more on ideological
rather than the practical issues. The failure of the free
market to self-regulate international finance as well as
misallocated resources and volatile exchange rates have
largely been ignored.Instead the highly questionable value
of free and unregulated markets are still being touted as
the ideal which must be adhered to at whatever cost.
The ideology of market freedom it seems is
more important than the well-being of human society.
7. It has become all too clear that the IMF is more a
political instrument than one for financial rehabilitation.
The sufferings of people seem to be of little concern as
long as certain policies and directives are implemented.
There is little hope that contrary views will be
entertained.
8. The revolution in information and communication
technologies has merely highlighted the failure of the
market in addressing the growing divide between
developing and developed countries as well as the rural
and urban areas. In an interconnected world, the
unconnected have become disenfranchised and de nied the
benefits of the new economy.
9. Developing countries have been presented with
additional challenges. ICT heightens the importance
of human capital in the development process.
This human capital has become a main, if not, the
main determinant of wealth creation and indispensable
to accelerating sustained economic growth and
development. We thus welcome as timely and relevant
the theme of the Eleventh Summit of our Group,
namely harnessing the potential of the digital era
for development.
10. Mental power or knowledge in which ICT is premised is
dynamic and constantly advancing. Access to and mastery
over the latest knowledge are basic to the creation and
development of a pool of rich or relevant human capital
which could be further enriched and harnessed for
development by exploiting the opportunities created by the
digital technology. In order to benefit from ICT, we have
to create an efficient system of knowledge management where
knowledge could be shared, distributed and analysed to
enable the creation of new knowledge.
11. As developing countries, we have to overcome major
impediments in order to seize the opportunities offered by
the digital era. First and most basic of all, we have to
develop the necessary human capital. However, human capital
alone would not be sufficient to a ddress the requirements
of the new economy. Developing good infostructure as well
as pragmatic legal and policy framework are also crucial.
12. To harness information and communication technology for
development, the primary problem faced by developing
countries is the low accessibility of the network. Service
penetration e specially to remote and rural areas where the
majority of our people live is low. The developed economies,
for instance, have a penetration rate for fixed lines and
Internet at around 50 percent of the population whereas the
developing economies are languishing at below 20 percent.
13. The biggest hurdle we have to overcome is the cost
involved in financing comprehensive infostructure
development. Even if we d eregulate the provision of such
services, we still have to address the inclination of the
private sector to concentrate on commercially viable areas
or services that command premium charges. Leaving the
financing of infostructure entirely to the private sector
is to aggravate the digital divide not only within the
country but also the greater divide between countries.
This creates the information poverty cycle and in the
process, ensure that the developing remains developing.
14. In addition to creating the infostructure, we have to
create a knowledge society that is not only computer literate
but has the capacity to create content and application
solutions in order to leverage on ICT for development.
Meeting this requirement represents one of the biggest
challenges that developing countries face in the information
age.
15. Increasingly also, we have to enhance the level of
adaptability or up-take of the e-systems, especially
e-transaction as this would promote the development of the
ICT market. Unfortunately, for many of us we still do not
have the legal and regulatory frameworks in place. At the
same time, we have to create awareness and change
well-entrenched business and working practices and procedures.
16. The rapid advancement in ICT has its downside too, which
we have to address. ICT has facilitated an explosive increase
in short-term financial speculations in stock and currency
markets and other financial markets and enabled highly
leveraged institutions such as hedge funds to speculate.
Technological developments in certain areas have also made it
difficult for national Governments to determine cultural or
communications policy or to control the spread of negative
information and cultural products.
17. In light of our inherent weaknesses in the ICT sector,
we have to foster closer co-operation and collaboration
among members of our Group.
18. In Malaysia, we discover that we have to view the lack of
infostructure not merely from the technical perspective but
also from the policy approach. We have learnt that some
intervention is required in order to rebalance a purely market-
driven environment. Malaysia would thus be instituting the
Universal Service Provision, whereby a fund financed through
mandatory contributions from licensed operators would be
established to provide service to areas formerly neglected.
In addition, the Government would provide direct funding to
connect schools and other public institutions. On the IT
content, we could all, for instance, learn from India in
developing content industries as well as in creative media.
19. We would do well to consider other areas of co-operation
and collaboration. We should speak with one voice to urge
developed countries to provide ICT at more affordable prices
as well as support infostructure development and financing.
We have to participate actively and together in global
negotiations on ICT.
20. Finally, it would be pertinent for us to share
information and resources to develop our human potential.
Malaysia firmly believes that for G-15 to remain relevant, we
must use the development potential of ICT to ensure a better
quality of life for our people.
21. Acting individually, we have limited capacity in
withstanding the mounting challenges confronting us. Acting
collectively and in concert with each other, we can make a
stand and even contribute to shaping a future in which the
concerns and interests of developing countries are taken into
account.
22. Accordingly, we must exert all efforts to manage the
globalisation process so as to favour us and the other
developing countries. Towards this end, we have to work as
closely together as possible.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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