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I am delighted to welcome you, Ministers and delegates, here in Vienna; your presence gives testimony to the importance which international cooperation across continents plays for the functioning of the global economy. Let me also welcome the heads of very important institutions, such as the IMF, the EC, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Central Bank. Your assistance in making this cooperation work is highly appreciated.
I am very glad that the Austrian Federal Chancellor and current President of the European Union Council of Ministers, Wolfgang Schüssel, gives us the honor to deliver the keynote opening address to our meeting.
Before I yield the floor to him, let me make some remarks:
This is an important year for Austria: W.A. Mozart was born 250 years ago, another giant of Austrian intellectual life and world-wide renown, Sigmund Freud, 150 years ago. And in this year Austria has the opportunity to lead the EU on its way, steer its direction and help solve some of its most pressing problems.
The Austrian Presidency has a focus on job creation and fighting unemployment, on growth and the necessary structural reforms.
As part of the Presidency events, we have organized this ASEM meeting, back-to-back with a European Council of Finance Ministers which finished this morning.
The linking of this (informal) ECOFIN Council and the ASEM Meeting is propitious: in both meetings we chose globalization as the major topic, thus one meeting can profit from the other.
In the ECOFIN meeting we concentrated on European policy challenges in order to maintain and increase competitiveness in the ever increasing globalization of our world, and talked intensely on corporate ethical behavior as both a pre-condition for public acceptance of social and economic change and also as a locational advantage of Europe in international competition.
At the ASEM meeting we will talk about the mutual opportunities and challenges which all our countries face in the globalizing economy.
I am convinced that this ASEM meeting will strengthen our strong commitment to liberalization, deregulation and privatization, all enhancing competition for the benefit of our populations.
We must, however, take the worries of our populations and their fears of globalization seriously. They are afraid to lose their jobs – as many in Europe have done in the past. There is an unhealthy discussion about predatory financial firms, coming like the plague or like locusts over our established firms and wiping them off the market.
While some firms do behave unethically, we must make sure that such discussions do not lead to protectionist tendencies. We must work together on the policy front, but also on communication, to make sure that the benefits of globalization are spread over all segments of our populations.
Only then will globalization and our supportive policies gain the support of our populations.
We know that poor countries opening up their borders to trade and capital flows have a 5 times higher chance to grow and successfully fight poverty than those which do not. While trade is no panacea for development, without trade and integration into the world economy countries remain mired in a vicious circle of poverty, underdevelopment and human misery.
We know that rich countries have gained most of their welfare from intensified trade: the EU is the best example for that.
Globalization as intensified trade, increased capital flows, know-how transfers, migration and integration into the value chain of the world economy, has the potential of yielding large benefits.
But globalization needs to meet certain pre-conditions, in order to benefit all partners. A level playing field approaching "trade among equal partners", meaning similar regulations, information, transport possibilities, is essential. Competitive advantage stemming from unfair trade practices, from predatory pricing, from dumping, from theft of know-how, from the excessive exploitation of labor and natural resources is not sustainable and will only benefit very few at the expense of the many.
In order to achieve such "level playing fields", institutions like the ASEM process are extremely valuable. Here we find common understanding about our two continents, here we can discuss differences of opinion, here we can acquaint ourselves with "best practices" and learn from each other – and here we can develop joint initiatives to bring the world forward.
Let me now yield the floor to my prime minister, Mr. Wolfgang Schüssel.
