Globalisation hurts third world economy

Speakers at a conference here said yesterday that market fundamentalism was now out to engulf the national economy and culture of the third world countries in the name of "so-called" globalisation.

We too, want globalisation but with rights, respects and care for our economies and cultures, they said while speaking at the second day programme of the three-day National Conference of South Asian Network of Gender Activists and Trainers (SANGAT) began at the CIRDAP in Dhaka on Friday.

Leaders of different women organizations from Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh are taking part in the conference titled "Gender, Globalization and Peace".

SANGAT's Regional Programme Advisor Kamla Bhasin, Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Binayak Sen and Executive Director of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha Rokyia Kabir took part as the panel discussants. Proshika's Senior Vice-President Mahbubul Karim acted as the moderator.

They said the market fundamentalists led by a few multinational corporations under the slogan of globalization was campaigning for free flow of capitals but they were not at all favouring free movement of the people across the world. The third world countries can not accept such a mischievous policy, they said.

They referred to the so-called neo-liberalisation now being smugly preached by the exponents of globalisation and said it was noting but a sheer attempt to make the developing countries subservient to the market economy.

Commenting on the spontaneous outbursts of people in the recently held Cancun Summit, the speakers said some international financial and trade organizations like World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were engaged in implementing a blueprint of the leading corporate bodies to exploit the poor economies.

Speaking about the Bangladesh perspectives in the global context, they said the contribution of donors in the country's total GDP was only two per cent but they were dictating the nation's entire economy.

"Now is the right time to resist the one-sided globalization which is guided by the capitalists and imperialists," they said. Poverty can never be eradicated from the poor countries as poverty is being created due to the detrimental and adverse policies of globalization, they also said.