Pakistan urges UN to lead the way out of food and energy crises

UNITED NATIONS: - Stressing the urgency of the challenges of soaring costs of food and energy, Pakistan has called on the UN to take the lead in generating money and technology vitally needed to deal with the two global crises afflicting many nations, especially the developing countries.
"Without this, poverty and despondency will grow, with potentially destabilizing effects on a large number of countries," Raza Bashir Tarar, the Pakistani delegate, told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday evening.
During a day-long meeting, the 192-member assembly debated the global food and energy crises in the context of its work on the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major U.N. conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields.
Underlining the huge challenges, the Pakistani delegate said, "We can not afford to falter any further on the agreed development commitments and goals. Procrastination and inaction will be catastrophic.  We need to act and act now."
Tarar, who is currently the acting permanent representative, said the international community’s response to the food crisis must be coherent and comprehensive.  Short-term actions should aim at expanding food production, while structural and policy issues must be addressed over the long term.
He also called for greater interaction between the High-Level Task Force, established to combat the crises, and member states.
The Pakistani delegate said he did not support the assumption that the rise in energy prices was due to a supply gap, suggesting instead that there was a lack of sufficient refining capacity.  There was a “doomsday security scenario” for oil-rich areas, and some control mechanisms and regulations were required to moderate prices by curbing manipulative speculation.
He urged rich nations to support developing countries in solving their balance-of-payment problems. In this regard, the Pakistani delegate welcomed Saudi King Abdullah's $500 million contribution.
The current financial crisis affecting industrialized economies had critically exposed the imbalance in the global financial system, he said.  If the current turbulence developed into a full-blown financial crisis, the global ramifications would be serious.
To offset such a possibility, the Pakistani delegate called for implementation of the commitments made by the developed world to increase official development assistance significantly.
                                UNGA PRESIDENT