HOLY SEE OBSERVER SPEAKS ON MACROECONOMIC POLICY QUESTIONS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 27, 2000 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, apostolic nuncio and Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke yesterday before the Second Committee of the U.N. General Assembly on Item 92, Macroeconomic Policy Questions, focussing his talk on the external crisis.

Remarking on the progress made in recent years on the remission of the debt of the poorest countries, the archbishop affirmed that "the measure of the success of debt relief is linked to the manner in which the resources freed are utilized effectively for the poor, within a broad framework for integral human development."

"The growing awareness of our interdependence must lead us to a great solidarity," stressed the nuncio. "Scientific progress must be accompanied by an ethic of sharing. ... Linking debt relief to concrete measures for the reduction of poverty is thus a significant move." He underlined that "the elaboration of national poverty reduction strategies will take time. ... It would be truly paradoxical if the work of devising poverty reduction strategies were actually to slow efforts to reduce poverty or impose a new set of conditions which would make debt relief more difficult."
Archbishop Martino then pointed out that "the current picture is not all positive. ... The poorest countries still encounter the negative effects of the protectionism of the rich, which prevents them from free access to important markets." And, he said, many funds are still diverted to pay the interest on debt.

In closing remarks, he recalled that the international community, in studying solutions for debt relief, must consider "in some cases ... cancelling debt totally. ... An interdependent world cannot be sustained only on the basis of the defense of narrow private or national interest. It requires solidarity."

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