THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA - L'EX-REPUBLIQUE YOUGOSLAVE DE MACEDOINE - LA EX-REPUBLICA YUGOSLAVA DE MACEDONIA

His Excellency Branko Crvenkovski, Prime Minister of the Government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

It is a special honour for me to address this eminent gathering today, at this important World Food Summit.

I would like to express my appreciation to FAO, to the Director-General Mr. Jacques Diouf and to the Committee on World Food Security for organizing this very important Summit for the international community. Furthermore, my special appreciation extends to the Italian Republic, for its contribution by hosting the Summit.

At the outset, allow me to underscore the full support and recognition of the Republic of Macedonia of FAO's efforts, a well-renowned international organization of the United Nations system, committed to securing sufficient food and an active and healthy life for all people worldwide. The activities of the Food and Agriculture Organization in the period of preparation for this Summit, attended by many distinguished representatives today, demonstrate their very serious approach; together with our discussions here, they give us hope that the final documents will optimally direct our common efforts and will lay out our tasks for the forthcoming period.

The problem of securing sufficient food for humanity remains one of the basic, if not the most fundamental international priorities. Hunger and food deprivation are a predicament faced by one-fifth of the world's population today. This is a sufficiently alarming and dramatic state that compels us to take unequivocal, urgent and decisive action for the eradication of hunger. All of us together, and each FAO Member individually, must give their maximum for the realization of our common, ultimate goal, a world without hunger, as a major precondition for promoting basic human rights and freedoms.

In order to overcome this bitter problem, the Summit documents state that it is essential to have an efficient strategy for speedy and effective action on all relevant issues.

Above all, it means speedy action that will enable the underdeveloped and developing countries to secure maximum production of food under given climatic and soil conditions in as short a time as possible. To this end, the activities of the international community would channel enhanced technical, financial and human resources support. At the same time, it is essential to undertake adequate activities to raise the level of the educational, agricultural and technical awareness of the people, as well as an appropriate and active population policy.

At the same time, it is rightly being emphasized that there is a need for efforts to be made by the international community to ensure an unobstructed flow of agricultural products, agricultural technology and know-how, under the most favourable conditions, that includes coordination of national and regional regulations for this purpose, and ensuring equal access to financial and production resources, including those of the international financial institutions.

The international community must also take a special approach to securing food and the basic protection of innocent populations suffering from natural or man-made disasters - such as wars, nuclear, biological and environmental calamities.

I will avail myself of this opportunity to turn the attention of this eminent auditorium to the Republic of Macedonia. It is an independent state in the south of the Balkans that gained independence five years ago, following the dissolution of the former Yugoslav Federation.

Many of you present here know, yet I will once again reiterate, that the Republic of Macedonia gained independence in a peaceful and democratic manner. We succeeded in keeping our country out of the war that engulfed more or less, for a shorter or longer period of time, all remaining States-Members of the former Yugoslav Federation.

We stood firm in support of peace, co-habitation, international cooperation, and democracy. These are the basic guidelines of our development as a whole. Yet, I would also like to point out that in the five-year period of our independence, we were confronted with an unusually difficult and complicated situation. While pursuing the path of our international integration, we were forced to master extremely difficult consequences resulting from various sanctions and embargoes.

At the same time, we began to realize the complex process of transition towards a market economy and democratic society based on contemporary standards. The characteristics of this process are complex and painful, and entail serious economic and social disorders, yet they are imperative for our future prosperity.

With much effort and sacrifice we have succeeded in overcoming the imposed obstacles and we have succeeded, to a significant extent, in stabilizing the economy, to radicalize reforms in key sectors, to deeply penetrate the process of privatization, and to set in motion the process of new growth. The cooperation which we have established with the international financial institutions, and the positive assessment presented in their thorough analyses, are a strong confirmation and a strong support for further action on our part, and, in view of the substantially relaxed situation in our surroundings, there are prospects for a relatively speedy and secure development, and conditions that will increase our presence in the world, and of the situation in Macedonia.

Within the framework of our comprehensive development, the Republic of Macedonia is devoting great attention to the agriculture sector, as a traditional and propulsive sector. Together with the processing industry, it makes up about 25 percent of overall domestic product. Macedonia has superb climatic, soil and environmental conditions for good quality, high-volume agricultural production of a wide range of healthy foods and products. In fact, we fully meet our own food requirements and we now have a surplus which we intend to export. The lack of financial resources is the main reason why we are not in a position to make optimal use of our comparative advantages and to offer the world more.

We believe that, with the help and support of the international financial institutions that are becoming quite entrenched in this sector, especially with the cooperation and support of FAO, as well as with the increased interest of foreign investors, we can succeed in a short period of time to make use of all of our potential, and to realise our goals - increased and better quality agricultural production and increased exports.

The Republic of Macedonia, as a small and open country is destined to seek international markets. With international trade being made easier and with trade barriers being eliminated, we will be in a position to make our true contribution towards the common goal that all of us are proclaiming here today.

In global terms, the global lack of food can be resolved by supporting agricultural production where adequate conditions exist. Subsequently, we anticipate that the Republic of Macedonia, supported by FAO, will successfully join the efforts of the international community in the resolution of the problem of food.

I am confident that the Rome Declaration and the Plan of Action will pave the way for the realization of our objectives; that we will set in motion all international and regional mechanisms, as well as mechanisms in individual countries and, that as a result, we can hope with reasonable optimism that at the next FAO Summit the situation with regard to world food security will be significantly improved.