JOHANNESBURG, 29 August — Commerce Minister Osama Faqeeh, who is leading the Kingdom’s delegation to the Earth Summit, yesterday emphasized the need for adopting a comprehensive strategy to fight poverty and achieve sustainable development.
“We are living in a world with a quarter of its population living under poverty. They don’t have access to even the basic elements of life and they face death at every hour,” Faqeeh said while attending a group discussion.
The Saudi minister said the proposals made during the discussion on energy were significant. “We hope that they will contribute to combating poverty and achieving sustainable development,” he added.
But Arab and other oil exporting countries have opposed a proposal made by the Euro-Mediterranean group that petroleum exporting countries contribute 20 percent of the fund required to finance clean energy research.
Meanwhile, the Arab group taking part in the summit have nominated Saudi Arabia as its spokesman. The group also agreed to set up a specialized Arab panel to take part in discussions on issues concerning the Arab region. The group meets daily on issues discussed at summit meetings to coordinate and adopt a joint Arab stand on each issue.
In a related development, Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) met Arab ministers on Tuesday and discussed the possibility of reaching specific agreements on controversial issues such as water, reform, world trade and energy.
