Wealth Creation and Sustainable Development

Introduction

Poverty is widely agreed to be an unacceptable human condition yet it remains an enduring problem. Despite broad agreement on the adoption of comprehensive poverty alleviation programmes as a key component in development strategies over the past fifty years, almost half of the world’s population currently lives on less than two dollars a day and the gaps between the rich and the poor, amongst and within nations, are perceived to continue to widen. Poverty, both a cause and an effect of increasing social, economic and political divides, is a problem that impacts not only the economic development of nations, but also their political stability and democratisation. 

In November 2001, the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) organised a conference on the political dimensions of globalisation. This was an attempt to review the impact of globalisation in the Asian region and to provide an opportunity for participants to encounter a wide range of views towards strategising appropriate responses. Expressions of opposition to globalisation had focussed on poverty and the “divide,” and it was expected that the discussion at the conference would be substantially oriented around these issues.

Due to the September 11 terrorist attack on New York and Washington D.C., however, the focus of the conference was substantially shifted to political developments in the region in response to the threat of terrorism, particularly its impact on democracy and freedom in Asia. Indeed, the shift of focus simply mirrored a general trend in which issues such as poverty were displaced from the spotlight by security-related issues, setting back the democratisation process in Asia, as well as the commitment to poverty alleviation.

Nonetheless, even though the threat of terrorism has substantially displaced poverty-related and development-related issues from priority in the political agenda of nations and international organisations, much discussion about terrorism points to poverty as one of its roots. Thus, the focus of this conference on “wealth creation and sustainable development” reflects CALD’s recognition of the on-going political importance of poverty in the Asian region.

There is general recognition of the need for policies to overcome poverty. The strategies and approaches to effect these policies, however, have always been contentious and subject to change as the past 50 years have revealed. In the 1950s and 1960s, strategy often focussed on investments in large-scale physical infrastructure projects while in the 1970s, it shifted to the development of human capital. During the 1980s, the emphasis moved toward decentralized decision-making, trade liberalisation and economic reform while in more recent years, there has also been an increased focus on the strategic importance of good governance. There are rather distinct and competing ideological approaches to overcoming poverty. Strategic approaches developed by international institutions, too, are criticised as donor-biased and insensitive to the culture of the intended beneficiaries and unresponsive to their real needs. There are also debates on how poverty is to be measured, how the reduction of poverty is to be ascertained and how a poverty alleviation program can be judged as a success or failure.

Conference Objectives

CALD aims to provide a unique forum for exchanging views about the principles of liberal democracy and facilitating discussion on appropriate responses to significant problems of the region. Like earlier CALD conferences, this conference will provide a forum for arriving at liberal solutions to pressing problems.

Its general objectives are:

·         to explore the dimension of poverty in Asia and

·         to consider liberal solutions for the alleviation of poverty in the region.

Participants

Members of parliament, officials of opposition and ruling political parties, members of civil society and the media and academics from across Asia, Europe and North America will gather in this two-day conference to share ideas, experiences and expertise.

Plenary Session I

Economic Growth and Income Inequalities:                                                                   An Empirical Regional Survey

Background

Asia is extremely diverse in culture but also in levels of economic development. Although a number countries, particularly from East and South East Asia, have achieved impressive growth rates from the 70s to the 90s and achieved overall high indicators with regard to living standards, despite the financial crisis of 1997, the benefits are not necessarily evenly spread while other countries have not shared in this economic growth. Asia is still home to two-thirds of the world’s poor.

This session will present an economic overview of the state of economic development in the East, South East and South Asian regions, specifically the extent and depth of poverty in the countries of these regions.  

Questions to be addressed by panellists:

Using current qualitative and quantitative measures or indicators of poverty, what is the state of poverty in East, South East and South Asia?

Which countries in the region have been able to reduce poverty during the past decade and what are the policies that have enabled them to do so?

Plenary Session II

Development, Freedom and Human Security

Background

Realising that conflict, poverty, infectious diseases and human right violations, which threaten the survival and dignity of millions of people are not adequately addressed, the United Nations Secretary General has called on the world community to advance the twin goals of “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear”, advocating the development of a new human-centred approach to effectively and comprehensively address these issues. In response to this, a UN Commission on Human Security (CHS) was created, co-chaired by Mrs. Sadako Ogata, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate for Economics and assisted by ten distinguished Commissioners from around the world. The  goals of the Commission are:

• to promote public understanding, engagement and support of human security and its underlying imperatives;
• to develop the concept of human security as an operational tool for policy formulation and implementation, and
• to propose a concrete programme of action to address critical and pervasive threats to human security.

In this plenary, Commissioner Dr. Surin Pitsuwan will present his views on human security, and the work and achievements to date of the Commission. 

Plenary Session III

Contending Paradigms of Sustainable Development

Background

Modern politics is largely based on the struggle between followers of three major ideological paradigms. In some cases, followers of one or other ideology attempt to achieve power in the name of that ideology, or in order to pursue policies in accordance with that ideology. In other cases, political struggles involve groups and individuals who are influenced to varying degrees by different ideologies, to influence policy in the direction of their ideological perspective.  Changing patterns and fashions in economic policies and poverty alleviation strategies reflect, to some degree, variation from one place to another and one time to another in the relative political strength of one ideological view or another.

In this session, an overview will be presented of the liberal paradigm in the context of the differences between the three major competing ideologies: conservation, socialism and liberalism.

Questions to be addressed by panellists:

What are the main differences of approach to national economic policy between  liberals, conservatives and socialists?

Where are good examples of countries (and institutions) that have followed liberal, conservative and socialist economic policies?

What are the main points of liberal, conservative and socialist approaches to alleviating poverty?

How do newer approaches, such as that of “the Greens” or feminists compare with the three major ideologies? Do they generate substantially different policy approaches to dealing with poverty?

Plenary Session IV

Political Parties and Economic Programmes

Background

Recognising the importance of improving people’s welfare and achieving improvement of their standards of living, political parties regularly adopt an economic platform as the basis for economic policy-making and appeals for electoral support in their respective countries. This economic platform is an integral part of the party’s image and programme and is widely disseminated.

In this plenary session, liberal and democratic parties from East, South East and South Asia will present their parties’ economic platforms in the context of the economic and political situation in their respective countries.

Questions to be addressed by panellists:

What are the guiding principles and salient features of the economic programmes of the political parties? What were the main economic issues that determined the focus of the programme How were these economic programmes arrived at?

How effectively have the political parties been in pursuing these economic programmes? What obstacles and difficulties were encountered?

Plenary Session V

Populism, Political Opportunism and Ideological Dogmatism

Background

Political parties compete with each other for the power to determine national policies. On the one hand, they may compete on the basis of their various claims to be best equipped to manage the nation’s economic affairs. On the other, however sound a party may believe its programme to be, if it cannot sell the programme to voters, it cannot win power. The region overall includes a wide variety of political contexts that makes the adoption of sound economic management policies politically hazardous. There are countries in which a single ideological approach has come to seem exclusively ‘legitimate’, making other ideological approaches “un-saleable,” however sound. There are situations where continuing economic failure has provided fertile ground for opportunistic parties willing to play on the suffering of the people and there are situations where because of economic downturn, clever marketing of populist policies is able to win over claims to sound and realistic, but painful, economic management.

In this plenary, liberal and democratic parties will discuss their encounters with populism, political opportunism and ideological dogmatism and how it has affected their own political fortunes.

Questions to be addressed by panellists:

How did the rise of these populists, opportunists or dogmatic ideologies occur? What are the national issues they used to rally their supporters?

To what extent have these populists, opportunists or and dogmatic ideologies determined political outcomes and influenced national policies?

What steps were taken by the political parties to counter populism, opportunism and ideological dogmatism? Have they been effective in meeting the challenge that these elements present?

Plenary Session VI

How to create an enabling environment for growth and sustainable development

Background

There is substantial agreement, on the surface, concerning the need to put poverty alleviation on top of any government’s development programme. To implement such a programme, however, requires a macroeconomic and national policy environment, which not only supports it but also guarantees its sustainability. This requires the creation or the strengthening of institutions capable of implementing programmes and monitoring their results. 

In this plenary, the speakers will discuss the institutionalisation of such an environment congenial to growth and sustainable development in terms of their experience in national government, and in the field. 

Questions to be addressed by panellists:

What factors pave the way for the creation of an enabling environment for growth and sustainable development?

What roles will political parties, as well as other players in national policy making play in creating such an environment?

Concurrent Sessions

Stimulating and Supporting Local Entrepreneurship

Central to the liberal approach in addressing poverty is the establishment of an environment that encourages the growth and development of businesses, which would ensure the sustainable livelihood and income of the populace. Although implemented in various ways across and within countries, this approach has been quite effective in a number of countries in Asia.  In these concurrent sessions, speakers will discuss specific cases from various Asian countries of programmes aimed at supporting the growth of businesses by developing or improving access for entrepreneurs to capital, access to markets, and access to education, training and technology.

Questions to be addressed by panellists:

What was your experience of improving access for entrepreneurs to capital, market, education, training and technology?

What were the results of these programmes?

What are the best ways of developing an environment that supports the growth of businesses?

Academic and Political Synthesis

In this session, experienced rapporteurs with developed views of their own on the conference theme will summarise the highlights of the conference and attempt to draw conclusions.

Closing Keynote Address

The closing keynote address will focus on the economic programmes pursued by the government of Sri Lanka and the results that have been achieved in terms of improvement of the people’s welfare.