His Excellency Dr. Leonel Fernandez President of the Dominican Republic The U.N. Private Sector Forum: The Millennium Development Goals and Food Sustainability
“Perspectives from Heads of State” Wednesday, 24 September 2008 U.N. Delegates Dinning Room 3:00 P.M.
I would like to thank my friend Georg Kell, Executive Director of the U.N. Global Compact for inviting me here today to be a part of your private sector forum. It is also a pleasure to join (Secretary‐General Ban Ki‐Moon, and) my colleague H.E. John Kufuor, President of Ghana as well as H.E. Paul Kagame, Prsidente of Rwanda. We have the honor and privilege of briefly sharing with you our perspective, as Heads of State and Government, of an initiative launched by Kofi Annan in 1999, which aims to channel the “power of markets” towards a more sustainable economic and social development. Although the Global Compact has been a “business‐led network”, I could tell you first hand that the Dominican Republic, as a government and as a country, has relied upon the Global
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Compact as a tool for our development. It has been “business‐ led” and “government driven”. In just two years, the Global Compact in the Dominican Republic has flourished into a network of over 150 companies since the formal launch of our National Global Compact Network in October 2006. This special occasion took place at the headquarters of the Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with the presence of Dr. Manuel Escudero of the Global Compact office here in New York. As government, we have the primary responsibility of ensuring we achieve the Millennium Development Goals, however, we know that any progress is not sustainable without the contributions of partners including the private sector. We have realized that these goals cannot be achieved without a constructive relationship between the public and private sectors. We need viable and ambitious public‐private partnerships to be able to achieve the Millennium Development
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Goals. After all, it is the private sector that creates productive and dignified employment opportunities. The Dominican Republic has achieved record‐breaking levels of economic growth since 2004. Levels of foreign direct investment have returned to the country. We have made key infrastructural investments. We have invested in technology. We have begun a process of constitutional and legal reform, all of which has set us on a course towards consolidating economic growth for our social development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. We have two primary challenges: 1. Converting economic growth into social benefits for all our citizens, especially those most in need; and 2. Helping our neighbor Haiti to overcome common challenges, including the food and energy crisis; Our framework for addressing challenge number one (01) is— the Global Compact. Our means of helping our neighbor is— the Global Compact.
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With constructive public‐private partnerships in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the government and business together, help to ensure that the country with the greatest social, environmental, economic, and social challenges in our region begins to climb the ladder of development. Once again, I would like to thank Georg Kell. Please be assured that the Government of the Dominican Republic is creating an enabling environment that is conducive to successful and responsible business practice. You know that you, the Global Compact, and its thousands of member companies have an ally and a friend in the Dominican Republic. Governments need to do their share to ensure that businesses can grow while sharing in process of improving the well‐being of our citizens. Thank you.
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