Such a pact would aim at widening corporations' transfer of know-how into emerging markets to include the sharing of democratic habits. In ABB, we did this in the Balkans by making sure we got Serbs, Kosovars and Bosnians to work together to rebuild war-damaged electricity infrastructure. In an emerging market country, we once talked the government into offering squatters along a future power transmission line financial incentives to move, instead of using the army to evict them. The result is a win-win equation. Getting corporations as co-guarantors of human rights, the U.N. gains an ally.
Businesses get smarter by becoming more a part of the societies they work in.
And most importantly, for the people in troubled countries, global business becomes a partner. I think that this is in our interest, and in the interest of societies everywhere. It is good business practice.