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Emerging Democracies Forum
Managing the Twin Transitions
Closing Plenaries
(10 of 25 pages)
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada: Mr. Carlos Ossio (sic) has the floor now.
Mr. Carlos Ossio Amatller: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the floor and with the permission of
His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Yemen I would like to express on behalf of all those present,
we would like to express our gratitude and thanks to the people of Yemen and to the whole of Yemen. I would like
to say very briefly how it is extremely important to have a commitment which we are now undertaking. I would like
to talk of a situation which was [inaudible] to us. In the 80's during the [inaudible] we hardly knew what was
happening in Bolivia and I was able to attend the meeting of solidarity with the people of Namibia. And particularly
in the struggle against apartheid and the defense of democracy. I had never, never thought that a few years later
I would be here present with the Prime Minister of Namibia and I was very happy to have worked with those people
and for my brothers.
I would like to emphasize as the fruit and outcome of this forum, what was said by His Excellency Prime Minister
of Yemen, that it is not just now the fact that the press cannot function under the control of the state and I
believe that this is something which should relieve and make us happy to know, and particularly throughout, in
all the countries of the world. Journalists, as far as our profession is concerned, we have something in our blood,
we have certain fraternity, and having listened to all the representatives of the countries, whether they be politicians,
parliamentarians or others, I think that your respective people would have certainly made use of this forum and
it is important to commit ourselves to the freedom of the press, free press and independent press and that it be
very a important element in our struggle for democracy. So, thank you.
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada: We thank you, the President of the Journalists Association in Bolivia. And
before giving the floor to the following speaker perhaps we're a few minutes late, I would like you to be brief
in your statement and in this way I'm sorry that everybody - I believe then that each of us will be, pay attention.
Now who wishes to take the floor?
Speaker: Thank you, Co-Chair. Co-Chairman, Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Yemen, Your
Excellency the President of the Republic of Mali, His Excellency, the Prime Minister of Namibia, very distinguished
personalities and participants, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Ghanaian delegation and on my own behalf
I wish to thank the sponsors and organizers of this about to end Emerging Democracies Forum. Our particular appreciation
goes to the government and people of Yemen for providing excellent facilities to host this forum and for extending
excellent warmth and hospitality to us. To the participants, especially the Yemeni participants, I say bravo and
congratulations.
This forum was the most informal but well structured one which afforded the opportunity to all participants to
discuss various aspects of economic and political liberalization, openly, frankly, freely and fearlessly. We have
exchanged experiences and ideas during the forum. I do hope that most of the participating countries will leave
this forum satisfied that they have been more informed and enriched in one way, in at least some way, conscious
of the need to avoid making or minimizing the making of politically, socially and economically costly errors, conceptual
and implementation errors associated with reform programs and cognizant of the need to [inaudible] a certain degree
of balance in their economic or in their political reform programs and also aware of the need to pursue economic
reforms in synchrony with political reforms.
Co-Chair, Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the forum has confirmed our conviction that the
main challenge facing the emerging democracies in the 21st century involves the need to apply themselves actively,
seriously, but cautiously to economic and political liberalization programs as a way of integrating ourselves into
the emerging global society where we can operate as equal partners to achieve the desired aspirations of humanity.
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