MSG121G/01E DEVELOPMENT: Former Chilean Leader Asks More of Wealthy Nations

SANTIAGO, Nov 24 (IPS) - "Wealthy nations can not sit with their arms crossed" in the face of poverty and inequality, former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin said Thursday in a call for a return to the original goals of international cooperation.

Aylwin was the keynote speaker of a two-day round table, inaugurated Thursday in Santiago for Latin American journalists on the Social Development Summit, scheduled for March 1995 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The meeting, which includes 22 professionals from 11 countries in the region, is one of many activities being held in preparation for the Summit, which was organised by the United Nations (U.N.) after Aylwin suggested the need for such a conference.

The former President, who heads a commission of Latin American figures in preparing for the Copenhagen meeting, stressed the problems of social inequality, both in the region and worldwide.

He said one fifth of the world population, some 1.1 billion people, live in poverty, 400 million in extreme poverty.

These figures are worse still in Latin America and the Caribbean, with an estimated 46 percent poverty rate and 22 percent living in absolute poverty.

Aylwin pointed out that inspite of increased economic growth in recent years, poverty is increasing as well, resulting in further polarisation between the rich and poor.

Currently, the wealthiest 20 percent of the world's inhabitants are 60 times richer than the poorest 20 percent.

Aylwin, who was President of Chile from 1990 to March of 1994, said that poverty not only causes economic and social problems but threatens political stability, and called for more government spending in health, education and housing.

He called for a worldwide policy of growth with equality, so that wealth will be justly distributed.

Aylwin said he hoped that the Copenhagen summit will stress the need for more international aid, in that very few of the industrialised nations have complied with the commitment made in the 1970's to dedicate 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product to developing countries.

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