Developing countries should post (opnå) a high economic growth rate of 6,2 percent this year but the pace of their expansion needs to be sustained, the UNs trade and development agency said Thursday.
The forecast growth rate for 2006 is unchanged over last year and exceeds the global average of 3,6 percent, which is also unchanged compared to 2005, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report.
By comparison, wealthy economies, including the US, EU and Japan, should achieve a growth rate of 2,7 percent this year.
In line with the rest of the world economy, average growth in developing countries is nearly twice what it was in 2002. Excluding Chinas booming economy, the fastest growth rates should be posted this year in Asia (7 percent), and in Africa (5,9 percent) where growth has accelerated consistently since 2002.
The economic environment has improved for many developing countries, including nations that are benefiting from the current high demand for oil and other raw materials, and others that have gained expanded manufacturing prowess, such as China, the UNCTAD report said.
Those countries need to turn the improved economic environment into “a dynamic process of economic growth and structural change that creates employment and raises living standards over the long term”, the report said.
To do that, governments of developing nations should take a pro-active stance in macroeconomic and industrial policies to accelerate private investment and technological upgrading and to stimulate the creative forces of markets, it said.
The report, which addresses the theme of “Global partnership and national policies for development”, did not call for inward-looking protectionist defense mechanisms. But it said that governments should find effective ways of solving information and coordination problems in the process of capital formation and productivity enhancement.
The UN has urged developing countries to subsidize their young businesses and protect them with tariffs. The report noted that it rejected protectionism, but argued that countries such as the Asian “tiger economies” had been able to strengthen the creative power of their markets through proactive industrial policies.
Implementing some temporary protection…should be considered a key element of a policy aimed at “strategic trade integration”, it said.
Governments should be actively involved in fostering and strengthening domestic businesses, the report said. They should not be “overly restricted” by international trade rules and should not shy away from using subsidies and tariffs to help and protect fledgling enterprises.
But UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, a former head of the World Trade Organization, said this did not mean that the agency wanted to weaken international trade accords.
– We are not recommending any anti-trade stance. Do not misunderstand us,he stated, adding: – We are just trying to point out the need to strengthen the creative forces of the market – this is the key to the recommendation.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
