Minister Väyrynen in New York: The principles of sustainable development forgotten in the fight against poverty

Press Release 271/2010
22 September 2010



Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen said that he was deeply disappointed at the fact that, with the exception of the environment, the principles of sustainable development have been forgotten in the preparations for the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit.

“Environmental development has been understood too narrowly, and economic and social sustainability are missing altogether. We have therefore been inefficient in reducing poverty.”

Minister Väyrynen pointed out that experience has shown that the most efficient poverty reduction takes place in open economies by means of sustainable and broad-based economic growth. In order to attain permanent results, socially sustainable development, good governance, rule of law, human rights and democracy are also necessary.

“We have managed to increase the amount of aid, but we have concentrated directly on reducing poverty through the public sector and we have ignored the development of infrastructure and a productive private sector,” the Minister said with regret.

Minister Väyrynen hoped that the efforts to reduce poverty and the preparations for the Rio+20 summit to be held in 2012 would pay more attention to economic and social development as part of the mitigation of poverty. Moreover, environmentally sustainable development should be examined from a wider perspective, and both industrialized and developing countries should invest in the development of ecologically sustainable production and consumption models.

Minister Väyrynen gave his statement at a roundtable session organized during the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York on 21 September.

Additional information: Markus Ojakoski, Senior Political Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, mobile tel. +358 500 459 009