Development Dossier
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Tel:+33-1/47 39 36 86, Fax:+33-1/47 39 36 85ICC/IOE High-Level Group for the WSSD The international business community, represented by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), welcomes the attention being given by this important gathering to the questions of poverty, employment and social integration. Without visible progress in dealing with all three of these basic aspects of social life, we will not establish the foundation for the stable societies necessary for sustained economic growth and development and the accompanying creation of wealth, which are the recognised prerequisites for social development on any meaningful scale. The Declaration and Programme of Action, to which Heads of State and Government are being called upon to subscribe, underline the crucial contribution which the private sector is expected to make toward achieving the social goals which the international community has set out during the preparations for this Summit. As global business organisations, it is natural that our attention should be focussed on job creation, particularly because, as we have indicated previously, we believe that employment creation is the principal mechanism through which we can attack the other two main concerns of the Social Summit ‑ poverty and social integration. We appreciate that, with countries around the world placing increasing reliance on the market system for the functioning of their economies, people are looking to the private sector as the primary source of employment creation. Some go so far as to assert that the level of employment maintained by companies should be a main criterion of their social performance and that business should abide by this particular measure of good social behaviour. Business generally certainly accepts that it must be a responsible partner in the social order in which it operates. To do this, however, it must be able, first of all, to perform its basic function of providing consumers with desired goods and services of high quality in what is often today an intensely competitive market. To the extent that an enterprise is able to carry out this role effectively, it will be able to generate new jobs and thus respond to its central social responsibility. In the context in which it must operate, an enterprise cannot make job creation its principal objective, to the subordination of other pertinent considerations. The generation of employment opportunities must inevitably flow from the success of an enterprise in maintaining its commercial viability in an often harsh market place. If it were compelled to maintain an artificially high level of employment, or even if it attempted to do so of its own volition without regard to the long‑term effect on its operations, its competitiveness would be put at risk and its potential to maintain any level of employment would be endangered. In short, it is commercial success which permits and encourages a high degree of entrepreneurial social responsibility, which often goes well beyond job creation. This is not to say that all enterprises will respond in the same way to competitive pressures to reduce operational costs and otherwise improve efficiency. There are all kinds of examples of companies which have moved to a reduction of staff and work force only reluctantly and perhaps as a last resort. It is one thing to accept that a determination of how best to organise its assets, human and otherwise, must be left to the decision of the enterprise; however, it is another to suggest that, unless its maintains some notional level of employment, it is not being socially responsible. We have stressed during the discussions in the Preparatory Committee that an essential prerequisite ‑ if the private sector as a whole is to make Hs full contribution to the achievement of the broad social goals which concern this Summit ‑ is a sound policy framework, both at the national and international levels, which will promote and encourage growth and development. More specifically, a sound policy framework must include: ‑ stable and consistent macroeconomic policy management, free of budgetary excesses and lax monetary policy; ‑ policies which encourage the expansion of international trade and investment; ‑ an institutional and policy environment that allows entrepreneurial initiative at all levels of business; and ‑ a flexible regulatory framework that enables adaptation to economic change.
government to provide a conducive enabling environment.
programmes for displaced workers. All of these are important elements of any coherent approach to the problem of employment creation. If poverty, unemployment and social disintegration are to be successfully addressed, continued discipline in their application will be required. At the same time, in order to maintain social cohesion, a minimum level of social protection will have to be ensured for those who suffer from economic adjustment and assistance extended to them to find new jobs in the productive sector. The Social Summit has a unique role to play in raising public awareness and moving society to make the efforts necessary to this end. Within the limits of the economic realities in which it must operate, business intends to make its full contribution to the practical implementation of the general goals of the Summit. This has been our position at the Preparatory Committee. The ICC/IOE appreciate this opportunity to reiterate this commitment. Directory: images images -> Pelan pentaksiran kursus images -> Military callsign list as of dec 2010 images -> For Date: 02/01/2013 Friday Call Number Time Call Reason Action 13-768 0008 motor vehicle stop warning Issued images -> New embedded S images -> Creating Buy-In – Building Relationships images -> Deadline: Saturday, March 12th, 2016 images -> News items from Raising Our Voices images -> Last year four of the best Afrikaans Christian singers joined forces to tour Down Under with the production ‘Manne wat Glo’ images -> World-renowned vocal ensemble sweet honey in the rock images -> Peoples Voice Café History Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
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