Minister Kitt to launch Partnership with Private Sector to advance Development Cooperation Objectives
Tom Kitt T.D., Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, has indicated that he will announce next week details of a forum to facilitate dialogue and cooperation with the Irish private sector in pursuit of the Government's development cooperation objectives and of the Millennium Development Goals.
Minister Kitt has been participating this week in a conference at the UN in New York which is reviewing the progress being made towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
The Minister held discussions with Ministerial colleagues from both Developed and Developing countries, with agency heads and with Irish NGO representatives about ways in which progress towards the realisation of the Goals can be accelerated, on the basis of the commitment made at the Monterrey summit on Financing for Development held in February 2002. The private sector has also been well represented at the UN conference.
“I want to see a renewed focus on the contribution which the private sector in developing countries can make to generating the economic growth needed for poverty reduction”, Minister Kitt said. “The private sector has a key role to play in relation to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”
He welcomed the prospect of increased cooperation with the Irish private sector within the overall context of untied aid, as a partner in the promotion of economic growth and transfers of know-how and experience to the priority countries of Development Cooperation Ireland.
Minister Kitt also agreed with EU colleagues and others on the need to revitalise the Doha Agenda in the wake of the Cancún summit. This will be among his priorities for Ireland's forthcoming EU presidency, along with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, conflict prevention and the effectiveness of international aid efforts.
