The Global Compact aims to enlist the help of businesses to build the missing social infrastructure of the new global economy by supporting nine core principles on human rights, labour standards and the environment. Many business leaders have responded positively, Annan told the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, a gathering of some 4,000 leaders of business, government, academia and civil society in Davos. It is an imperative.
Investment is of decisive importance for the developing world.
The only developing countries that really are developing are those that have succeeded in attracting significant amounts of direct foreign investment, as well as mobilizing the savings and resources of their own citizens. Violent conflict is the biggest obstacle to social and economic progress in many parts of the world, the UN chief declared. Accepting that this is primarily the responsibility of governments, companies operating in such areas should act in ways that improve the chance of peace, or at least do not fuel the conflict. The unequal distribution of benefits, and the imbalances in global rule-making, which characterize globalization today, inevitably will produce backlash and protectionism. And that, in turn, threatens to undermine and ultimately unravel the open world economy that has been so painstakingly constructed over the course of the past half-century.