Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee address at the World Congress For Sustainable Development

Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission K C Pant,

Governor of West Bengal,

Chief Minister Jyoti Basu,

Mayor of Calcutta,

Shri G. P. Lal,

Prof. J Medem Sanjuan,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am happy to be present here today at the World Congress for Sustainable Development that has been convened to discuss key global issues and concerns. For developing countries like India, the issue of sustainable development has gained importance in recent years, especially in the context of globalization.

The Rio Conference of 1992 launched a global partnership on environment and development. It was acknowledged that sustained economic growth, eradication of poverty and the attempt to meet the basic needs of the people constitute the over-riding priorities for developing countries. No development process can be sustainable unless it leads to visible and widespread improvement in these areas.

It was also agreed at the Rio Conference that concerted international action is needed to ensure global prosperity and better quality of life for all. In the years following the Rio Conference, several initiatives have been taken to address the pressing problems of today, aiming at preparing the world for the emerging challenges of the 21st century which we have just entered.

Developing countries need a favourable international economic environment, combined with financial and technical assistance, favourable terms of trade, access to markets and transfer of environmentally sound technologies to supplement their efforts in achieving sustainable development.

Given the limited resources available to them, developing countries are doing their best to achieve that national economic security which alone can provide the global environmental security that we all seek. Since the Rio Conference, developing countries have made considerable progress in their efforts towards achieving sustainable development. India has not lacked behind.

My Government has adopted an ambitious programme to fight the battle against poverty, illiteracy and disease. We are committed to the goal of providing a better quality of life to our citizens by ensuring access to basic health care, primary education, clean drinking water and shelter. These goals form the core of our social development initiatives.

At the same time, we are also committed to rapid economic development and creation of infrastructure for sustained growth. The present infrastructure is expected to expand at a much more accelerated rate. This expansion is especially necessary in the energy, telecommunications and transport sectors.

But all these development activities must not be allowed to result in severe depletion of natural resources and degradation of our environment. We must synergise our needs with the availability of natural resources.

Policies and programmes aimed at sustainable development call for considerable co-ordination given the complexity of the many organisations, both private and government, that are involved in the development process. We need to ensure smooth co-ordination so that projects are not held up or fall through due to inordinate delays caused by conflicting views among the organisations.

An important input for sustained economic growth is technology. New and efficient technologies are essential to achieve sustainable development. Moreover, technology upgradation is required for providing Indian enterprises with global competitiveness in the era of liberalisation.

To ensure regular and timely technology upgradation, it is necessary that enterprises have information on relevant technologies available in the international market and also within the country. No less important is the need to ensure that this technology is environment friendly.

Environmentally sound technology encompasses a total system, which includes know-how, procedures, energy supplies, energy technologies. Bearing this in mind, we need to invest in - and, therefore, increase - our Research and Development capacity since this is crucial for effective dissemination of environmentally sound technologies and their generation locally.

We have to focus attention on some key areas in this regard. They are:

Access to information on state-of-the-art technologies;

A framework for dissemination of information on the sources of availability of environmentally sound technologies;

Development of guidelines for transfer of technologies; and,

Training of personnel to undertake technology assessment for the management of such technologies.

The transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies from the industrialised to the developing countries has come to be seen as a major element of global strategies to achieve sustainable development. But, and regrettably so, the international commitment for the transfer of technology on ~Concessional and Preferential Terms~ has remained only as a concept on paper.

On the other hand, the industrialised countries are transferring highly polluting technologies to the developing countries as ~Proven Technology~ or as ~Low Cost Technology~. It is, therefore, imperative that the international community evolves an effective and meaningful mechanism to ensure transfer of environmentally sound technologies to the developing countries at concessional and preferential terms.

In this context, India welcomes the Clean Development Mechanism that is being negotiated under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The latter provides for foreign investment and transfer of technology to developing countries for reducing green house gas emissions as part of the developed countries' commitment to limit their emissions to certain levels.

I wish to stress here that it is in the interest of our global environment -- and our future generations -- that the negotiations in this direction are concluded within the deadline of November 2000.

In order to strengthen the technological capabilities of the various sectors of our economy, both for meeting national needs and for providing global competitiveness to our industry, a number of initiatives have been launched in the country. Some of these are: research on the design of catalytic converters and introduction of battery-operated vehicles in urban areas, use of alternative fuels and improving the quality of fuel.

Here, I wish to touch upon a crucial sector of our economy - the small and rural industrial sector which together produce a large number of items used by the common man and provide employment to millions of people. This sector needs to be enriched with appropriate technology that is cheap, clean and efficient.

In recent years, though Indian business and industry have made significant efforts -- including investment of considerable resources in the development of environmental management systems and environmentally sound technologies -- towards reducing the impact of industrial activity on our national environment, much more still needs to be done.

A Technology Development Board has been set up with the mandate to facilitate development of new technologies, apart from assimilation and adaptation of imported technologies by providing catalytic support to industries and Research and Development institutions to work in partnership.

I would urge business and industry associations to actively associate themselves with Government programmes so that rapid progress can be made towards achieving the goal of environmentally sustainable development.

The crucial task of institutionalising sustainable development in India is being achieved by strengthening institutions and governing structures concerned with environment and social infrastructure management. My Government is looking at certain critical areas in which such activities need to be pursued with greater vigour than before, and which can be achieved with the co-operation of industry and technological experts.

For, it is only with the co-operation of all, be it industry, the scientific community, voluntary organisations or local communities, that Government can respond suitably to the challenges of economic and sustainable development.

India is proud of her large reservoir of scientific and technical manpower that is second to none in competence. The Institution of Engineers symbolises this talent and I commend its effort in organising this World Congress. It gives me great pleasure that our engineers and technologists have come forward to help India attain the goal of sustainable development.

I look forward to the World Congress for Sustainable Development coming up with appropriate sustainable development strategies and ideas.

I thank you all for providing me with this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you.

Thank you.