NEW DELHI, February 8: Globalisation received a setback following the recent south-east Asian economic meltdown but the process was here to stay, according to an international expert on free trade."What is happening in Indonesia today is a great cause of concern, as these countries were economically very sound, but that does not mean that there is anything wrong with the process of globalisation," David Bayer, director of Oxfam, a British NGO, said yesterday.
However, he said the process suffered from some inherent deficiencies which would have to be redressed for the trend to catch on.
"Inequality has grown over the years with greater globalisation with the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer," he said.
He also called for urgent steps to remove this growing rich-poor divide.
Referring to the role played by NGOs, he said that India receives one-fourth of its foreign aid through major NGOs.
A whopping sum of $5.6 billion flows to the developing world through major donor agencies asconcessional aid, he said.
NGOs were playing a very crucial role, in the developing countries, such as cancellation of third world debt and rehabilitation of people affected by landmines and their role was growing day by day as they associated themselves with different areas of civil society.
He cited the example of Colombia, where NGOs had brought the government, public and British Petroleum˙under a single forum to sort out alleged violation of human rights and environmental laws by the multinational.
Bayer said modes of communication, media and Internet had a very vital role to play in the globalisation process and agreed with the view that the issue of poverty should be seen in the right perspective.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
