Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, said if the twenty-first century was to become the century of development for all, then everyone must be prepared to undertake bold action. That implied a search for new ideas and actions.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, "We are here to discuss the fate of people. Not people in abstract, but million upon million of individual men and women and children." He said some donors might still be sceptical, because they were not convinced that "aid works". There was abundant evidence that aid did work. The "Monterrey Consensus" was not a weak document, it could mark a real turning point in the lives of poor people all over the world.

Han Seung-soo, President of the General Assembly, stressed that for rapid development, countries must have access to financial resources, the human capacity to efficiently absorb those resources and the "appropriate" infrastructure to make productive use of external financial resources.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, said all people had a right to human dignity and a right to control their own lives, yet for billions, poverty snatched that right away. He looked forward to giving to the poor of the world the chance that they needed -- partnership, not charity.

Horst Köhler, Managing Director of the IMF, said it was possible to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Beyond Monterrey, the consensus must be transformed with a sense of urgency into concrete action.

Mike Moore, Director-General of the WTO, said poverty in all its forms was the greatest single threat to peace, democracy, human rights and the environment. Abolishing all trade barriers could boost global income by $2.8 trillion and lift 320 million people out of poverty by 2015.

Hugo Chávez Frías, President of Venezuela and Chairman of G-77, said that the world was not only crooked, but "upside down". The development model of the North very often had caused the underdevelopment of the South. It had been shown that if the entire world acquired the standard of living of the most developed countries, 10 planets similar to earth would be necessary to sustain the life of the people on the planet.

José María Aznar, President of Spain, speaking for the European Union, said the world should be fairer, freer, more prosperous, and better. The European Union was the greatest donor of the development assistance in the world. Its ODA average would be 0.39 per cent by 2006. The Union would also work to ensure that ODA was more effective and efficient.

Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria, commended the increase in ODA announced by the European Union and the United States in recent days.
National security without human security was inconceivable. The developing world expected substantial debt relief for all developing countries.

Alejandro Toledo Manrique, President of Peru, said that poverty prevented the true exercise of freedom and conspired against democracy. Globalization must be an integrating, rather than an excluding, philosophy.

Leo A. Falcam, President of the Federated States of Micronesia, said unless there was political stability, transparency and accountability, economic development initiatives were bound to fail.

Agbéyomé Messan Kodjo, Prime Minister of Togo, said the assets of the three richest persons in the world exceeded the GDP of the 48 poorest countries. He appealed to the developed countries to increase FDI and ODA.

Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium, said the Monterrey consensus deserved a true debate. On aid and debt relief, Belgium had proposed setting up a fund financed by the three richest countries. Poverty must be eradicated, as that had fed the fertile soil of terrorism. Fanaticism could not become the new "opium of the excluded".

Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada, said leaders of developing nations needed a commitment to good governance and the rule of law, sound fiscal and monetary policies and improved transparency. The challenge for leaders of developed countries was to reward those efforts with effective assistance.

José María Pereira Neves, Prime Minister of Cape Verde, said the United Nations must be at the centre of the effort to sustain development.

Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, said leaders must reach explicit commitments on development financing and then proceed with great clarity of purpose to the Johannesburg Summit in September to map out the detail for sustainable development.

Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., President of Palau, said there must be a special recognition and support for those developing countries making genuine efforts to help themselves. Donor nations should expect each developing nation to establish a strong policy framework as a prerequisite to receiving financial aid.

Enrique Bolaños Geyer, President of Nicaragua, said opportunities were needed to sell the products of developing countries in international markets and to reduce trade-distorting subsidies.

Fidel Castro Ruz, President of Cuba, said the existing world order represented a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. "The world economy is today a huge casino." Analyses indicated that for every dollar that went into trade, over 100 ended up in speculative operations. The Monterrey consensus, which the masters of the world were imposing on the Conference, intended that "we accept humiliating, conditioned and intrusive alms".

Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez, President of El Salvador, said the first prerequisite for tackling underdevelopment and poverty was for a country to shoulder its responsibilities.

Boris Trajkovski, President of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, said what the people really needed was jobs. Long-term prosperity required mobilization of domestic financial resources as an important engine of economic development.

Jorge Battle Ibañez, President of Uruguay, welcomed the efforts by the international financial institutions, such as the IMF and the actions of some developed countries, such as United States. Opening up of markets remained the best way to combat poverty.

Festus G. Mogae, President of Botwana, said that while individual countries bore the primary responsibility for their own advancement, development was a global challenge requiring global solutions.

Ricardo Maduro Joest, President of Honduras, said he supported the commitments made by donors. He urged donor countries to make additional commitments to increase grants over loans made on a conditional basis. Success in defeating poverty was possible only with development assistance and market access.

Hipólito Mejía Dominguez, President of the Dominican Republic, said financing for agriculture must be among the new priorities of the international agenda.

King Abdullah Bin Al Hussein of Jordan said for too long, deep pools of poverty and desperation had served as breeding grounds for conflict and division. "We must move quickly to remedy unfairness and heal despair." In 2000, developing countries received just 19 per cent of all foreign direct investment flows, down from 41 per cent in 1994.

Abderrahman Youssoufi, Prime Minister of Morocco, hoped the Conference would agree to greater inclusion of developing countries in decision-making. Africa faced major difficulties and deserved priority attention.

Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi, Prime Minister of Mozambique, said good governance, sound economic policies, the rule of law, respect for human rights, transparency in decision making and combating poverty were fundamental to the success of national development plans.

Miguel Angel Rodríguez Echeverría, President of Costa Rica, said a system of emergency loans entrusted to the World Bank would resolve many liquidity difficulties, and a system of guarantees by the World Bank and regional development banks for the issuance of bonds with adequate monitoring policies could guarantee better management of national crises by giving central banks immediate access to funds.

Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, said the international financial structures, created in Bretton Woods, ought to be substantially reformed to meet the challenges of a new age.

Stjepan Mesic, President of Croatia, said the globalization of enrichment, on the one hand, and impoverishment, on the other, must be replaced by a globalization of development.

Tarja Halonen, President of Finland, said products and services originating in the developing countries must have the opportunity to gain fair access to markets in the industrial countries.

Ion Iliescu, President of Romania, said it was unacceptable that 1 per cent of the world's wealthiest had revenues higher than 57 per cent of the world's poor.

Andrés Pastrana Arango, President of Colombia, said human beings must work as a global community so that all could share in the same fate.

Kjell Magne Bondevik, Prime Minister of Norway, said 11 September tore down the invisible wall that divided rich and poor. Those events had driven home the recognition that poverty, lack of development and social injustice had to be addressed seriously if the long-term battle against global terrorism was to be won.

Thaksin Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand, said new models of socio-economic development must be explored. The promotion of micro-financing and micro-credit was one of the highlights of his country's economic policies.

Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal, said that in April Senegal would host a conference with the private sector on financing the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). The private sector had developed Europe, Japan, the United States and other countries -- Africa should move in that direction.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria, said the debt problem, massive speculative capital flows, money laundering, and financing of terrorism were symptoms of the poor global monetary system.

Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodríguez, President of Panama, said her country had lived and suffered through all possible models -- totalitarianism, socialism and capitalism. While industrialized countries had used up most of their resources, developing countries were told to decrease the use of their own natural resources.

Mohamed Ghannouchi, Prime Minister of Tunisia, said coherence in development policies across the world and coordination between governments and institutions was key. The United Nations was the appropriate forum to promote such cooperation.

Nagoum Yamassoum, Prime Minister of Chad, said his country had committed itself resolutely to build a society based on liberty and law. Chad had tried to redress itself politically and economically and thanked all its bilateral and economic partners for their support.

Eduardo Duhalde, President of Argentina, said a new architecture for development would not be possible if the rich economies did not reduce protectionism in all its forms. Aid could not be efficient in a context of severe trade distortions, mainly in the agricultural sector.

El Hadj Omar Bongo, President of Gabon, said that, although developing countries had shown real commitments to support development and fight poverty, that commitment was not matched by their partners. Africa, which constituted 10 per cent of the world's population, only had 2 per cent of world trade.

Jorge Quiroga Ramirez, President of Bolivia, said that to combat corruption, Bolivia was decentralizing public investment and aiming it at social programmes. Reform of the judicial system and institutions was also underway. "We shaped up and now we are frustrated that, in the football match of world trade, the rules are constantly changing", he said. There was no financing for development if there was no opening of markets for development.

Owen S. Arthur, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Barbados, said "Financing is to development what a steady supply of oxygen is to human life."

ROUND TABLES

The Conference was unprecedented not only in bringing finance and development ministers together with businessmen, but also in the way the United Nations, IMF, World Bank and WTO had worked together in preparing it, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. He added that good governance should not be seen as being imposed by the IMF or other outside forces. It was in the interest of all, especially the poor.