Economic Globalization Widens Wealth Gap: UN OfficialEconomic globalization has been of little benefit to developing countries but instead has intensified the world's wealth disparity, according to a UN official.Under the globalization trend, talented personnel, technology and large amounts of trade and investment gradually pool into the developed countries which exercise a mandate over the world economy, said Division Chief Lai Shian Lung for Social Policy and Development under the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Addressing the International Workshop on Networking and Capacity Building for Social Development in Northeast Asia recently held here, Lai observed that due to historical reasons, developing countries are forced into unfavorable conditions by economic globalization, which, although in the long term, promises a comprehensive lifting of living standards and national strength. Expert Liu Jinchang with the UN International Labor Organization agreed with Lai that people in the world's economically backward areas have yet to enjoy benefits from the economic globalization. Driven by profits, the developed countries, grudging at transferring technologies, only shift outdated industries with low added-value and heavy pollution to the developing countries. Workers, without technical training and necessary social welfare, are faced with the constant risk of unemployment under harsh working conditions. According to estimates, the world's developed countries, while supporting less than 20 percent of the world's population, yield almost all of the world's technological creations. In sharp contrast, some one third of the world's population can neither seek creations at home nor acquire advanced technologies from abroad. According to estimates, today, the developed countries control 90 percent of the world's total direct investment and the mutual trade among their trans-national companies alone accounts for over 80 percent of the world's total. What's even worse, instead of acting in accordance with the market rules, the developed countries have set many of non-tariff trade barriers, which have inflicted large economic losses on developing nations. A U.N. report shows that the income disparity between the world 's richest 20 percent of the population and the poorest 1/5 widened from 30:1 in 1960 to 74:1 in 1997. Another report released by Britain shows there are still 1.2 billion people in the world whose daily income stands below one US dollar. UN officials participating at the meeting believe that since economic globalization is an irrevocable trend, the developing countries should, proceeding from their specific situations, adopt an active attitude and continuously upgrade their international competitiveness. Robert Huber, advisor to the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, suggested that the developed countries should, on the other hand, also offer economic assistance and open their markets to developing ones. By doing so, he believes, they would not only help the developing countries optimize their economic structures but also create a broader and more stable market for themselves. |
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