The new economy flourishes in an environment of freedom protected by laws and institutions. It draws on human creativity and free expression but requires also honest and transparent institutions. Where these conditions are not present, countries are by-passed, left out of the communications revolution and left behind while others grow. It has consumed national political life and is a cathartic grappling with history, change and our place in the world. Not easy, often crass, but indispensable.
Every country needs it.
It is the national debate that settles the necessary trade-offs between protecting culture and a traditional valued way of life and global integration. Without it change is, in my view, unsustainable. It lacks the social consensus to endure. UNDP has always been active through networking with national policy institutes in developing countries and through our National Human Development Reports, which are prepared by national teams of experts and activists, in stimulating debate about public policy priorities and economic choices. I am planning to enlarge this support.