Launch of the 2009 Commonwealth Business Forum

Ladies, and gentlemen, I thank Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Commonwealth Business Council Chairman Mohan Kaul ... and all of you who today are officially launching the Commonwealth Business Forum 2009.

Many of our discussions with our Trinidadian counterparts to date have been over logistics – locations, hotels, cars, accreditation …. so this is a great day in launching the substance of ‘Commonwealth Week’ in Port of Spain, November 2009 – the policy discussions, the networking, above all the results that improve the lives of Commonwealth citizens.

The context for the CBF

Let me remind us all of the context for this CBF launch, for CHOGM and for everything we do in the Commonwealth.

It is the 800 million Commonwealth citizens who live in poverty. Because the best way out of poverty is wealth, and it is ‘Business’, big and small – the middle word of your ‘CBC’ title – that creates wealth.

It is also the small state economies which are chronically vulnerable and seriously hampered in their ability to compete.

It is the farmers and manufacturers, crippled by world trade rules, who cannot sell their goods abroad and who see foreign and subsidized goods undercutting their own ‘at home’.

It is the countries that cannot generate the investment (whether from home or abroad) which brings growth, jobs, livelihoods – and, with them, better health, better education.

It is the worst financial crisis this world has seen, in the lifetime of anyone in this room.

2009 will see the first contraction in global GDP since 1945.

Trade is down nearly 10% – the biggest drop since the Commonwealth was founded.

30 million more people are unemployed, of whom 23 million are in the developing world.

How different a picture it was in the run up to CHOGM 2007, when GDP was increasing at 5% a year, and money more freely available.

The Commonwealth is disproportionately affected by this global crisis, and its share of global GDP is set to decline from 14% last year to 10.5% this year.

For Commonwealth citizens, this means a smaller share of a smaller cake.

More than that, it means real hardship for millions: the World Bank now estimates that up to 100 million people will be newly classified as ‘poor’ – that is, living in dollar-a-day poverty – as a result of the crisis.

I have said time and again that a crisis in the developed world must not become a catastrophe in the developing world.

CHOGM 2009 and the CBF 2009 must be focussed and passionate about its constituents – the poor, the weak, the marginalised, the vulnerable – and on those who can create growth and development – especially the innovative and the young.

The way ahead: considerations for the CBF

The crisis has changed much, but it is still true that....

Future prosperity and growth have to be driven by the private sector.

The public sector cannot substitute for this.

$30 billion of extra lending from the Multilateral Development Banks is expected this year – but the fall in foreign direct investment is ten times this scale.

Trust is vital in the conduct of business.

Enron and WorldCom showed the devastating consequences of loss of trust.

Now we have seen those costs on a systemic scale.

Without trust in contracts, counterparties and credit, business cannot be conducted.

Partnerships are crucial both to restoring growth and to long term development.

The Commonwealth should be fostering those linkages between countries, and between the public and private sectors.

It is not by accident that this year’s CHOGM theme is ‘Partnering for a more equitable and sustainable future’.

So how are you to reflect this in the Commonwealth Business Forum 2009?

First, by thinking smart.

Growth will come back, but in an amended form I hope – guided more by the principles of inclusiveness and integrity.

And when it does come back, growth is expected to be faster outside the advanced economies in future, and I don’t just mean in the BRICs.

You need to position yourselves now for new opportunities.

That’s why the Commonwealth Secretariat is working to achieve this, by facilitating seed money for some investors entering new markets, and by strengthening countries’ efforts to attract investment.

A passion of mine is that they should attract investment in youth entrepreneurship, going far beyond the reach of the current – excellent – Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative, which provides training, credit and business support to boost youth entrepreneurship.

It is young people who will drive the business growth which you and we all seek – they are our future.

We want them let loose on a world which will give wing to their potential, not tie their feet.

‘Business’ at large, and the CBC and the CBF in particular:

part of the Commonwealth equation

Meanwhile it is now 12 years since the 1997 Edinburgh CHOGM, which was the first to give real prominence to the economic dimension of the Commonwealth.

That led to the Commonwealth Economic Declaration on Promoting Shared Prosperity.

It also led to the establishment of this Commonwealth Business Council.

Let me state that I am very grateful to the CBC and to Mohan Kaul for all the good work done in carrying this work forward.

Your good ideas come thick and fast.

I am especially struck by your work with the e-Africa Commission of NEPAD on a new pan-African payment gateway.

Next month, the Secretariat is proud to work with you on an important conference looking into – and out of – the current financial and economic crisis.

The fact is, that the Commonwealth’s two cornerstones – democracy and development – are both about partnership.

Government, business and civil society are all part of the mix.

Indeed, in formally challenging the Business Forum to deepen its practical links with the People’s Forum today (in other words, with civil society), I call on us all to reap the benefits of the unbreakable if unquantifiable bonds which hold us together in partnership – our shared values, language, systems, challenges and goals.

So your challenge is to build on the excellent Commonwealth Business Forum 2007 in Kampala.

That was a highly successful event.

At one level, it was quantifiable for Uganda: the CBC itself tells us that it led to more than $1 billion worth of projects in infrastructure, energy and telecommunications.

At the deeper level, it talked about realising what you called ‘untapped potential’.

That expression, in turn, linked very closely with President Museveni’s theme for the wider CHOGM, when he asked us just how we are to, quote, ‘transform societies to achieve political, economic and human development’.

My Commonwealth response to the questions and themes of both President Museveni and President Manning is that all of our shared themes are nothing if they are not rooted in democratic values.

I warmly commend the Commonwealth Business Forum, and I encourage businesses, governments - and civil society organisations - to take part in Port-of-Spain, and to have their say.

I hope they will all remember our context: those in the Commonwealth who need us most.

I wish you all great success.

Thank you.

ENDS