Today, no effort towards solidarity can be effective without the active involvement of civil society. As seen in the response to the Kosovo emergency, the private sector can play a central role in global solidarity cultivation. Business is contributing directly to the welfare of the disadvantaged in other societies by providing material or financial assistance to aid activities. I hope that this joint business-humanitarian effort will serve as an example for mobilizing private sector support for refugees and displaced persons, not only in Kosovo, but also throughout the world. This is important because business is needed to make a fundamental contribution to economic development, and hence to the stability of troubled regions for example in many post-conflict situations by creating economic opportunities in these areas.
Civil society can furthermore play an essential role in creating a more positive image of refugees.
In my country, Japan, for example, the concept of receiving and integrating refugees is comparatively new. If the public sector has been relatively prudent, the business community has on the contrary been instrumental in promoting and facilitating the integration of 10,000 Indochinese refugees in the last few years. And the same is true in countries with a longer, more solid tradition of refugee asylum, such as the United States and Western European countries. Small and medium scale enterprises in particular have been, and remain, key players in providing refugees with opportunities for work and thereby with chances for self-reliance. These experiences will ultimately give back to the refugees the dignity and respect which derive from being full members of a community the dignity and respect that they lost when they fled their countries.