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Conversation Cafe Discussions Global Hunger Fund 2-1-2004 Feb 1, 2004 GENEVA : Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was due to meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and President Jacques Chirac of France in Geneva to rally support for a global fund against hunger. Chile's President Ricardo Lagos was also due to join the trio for the meeting, which is aimed at pressing forward with a proposal put forward by Lula to the summit of G8 industrialised countries in Evian, France, last year, diplomats said. Advertisement At the time Lula suggested a fund which might be financed by a tax on arms deals, or a levy on poor countries' debt repayments which would be paid by industrialised countries. On Thursday, Lula revived the idea of a tax on global business transactions shortly after an investment meeting in Geneva with top corporations, saying there were several options for a levy. ''I am not sure we would have the courage to do it,'' Lula admitted during a press conference. ''The fight against poverty is a moral obligation for those who govern all the countries in the world,'' the Brazilian president and son of a poor farming family said. Lula's drive has gained broader international support in recent months. ''What President Lula has done in raising the issue of world hunger to the top of the world's agenda is one of the most important things that happened in the world last year,'' said James Morris, executive director of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Chirac threw his weight behind Lula's suggestion of a tax at the G8 summit last June saying that he backed the examination of a tax, and recently condemned persistent hunger and the ''misery and scourges that go with it''. The United Nations secretary general also urged the international community to refocus on development issues during the World Economic Forum last week. Annan urged efforts to ''rebuild our system of collective security and thus prevent the world from sliding back into brute competition based on the laws of the jungle.'' He also voiced frustration at the global trade system and the dominance of agricultural subsidies which marginalised poor-nation exports from world markets. Lula on Thursday sought to reverse a decline in foreign investment in Brazil by holding an unprecedented meeting with about 200 top executives from major corporations. The promotional attempt by the Brazilian president and several ministers came after foreign direct investment dropped to 11 billion dollars in 2003, down from 18 billion dollars the year before and about one third of the total that flowed into the country three years ago. Yet, Brazil remains one of the major attractions for foreign investors just behind China in recent years, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Lula was also due to meet the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, at IOC headquarters in Lausanne earlier on Friday to promote Rio de Janeiro's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. - AFP -By posted by John Luke Hartmann, johnhartmann@iglou.com |
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