Calmy-Rey outlines development priorities
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey says food shortages and climate changes around the world are major challenges for development policies.
Calmy-Rey was speaking in Fribourg on Friday at the annual conference of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
“The only solution is with a revolution of productivity and efficiency. It a question of achieving the best results with the same if not fewer means of production.”
She said the Mekong region was a good example of development that could apply to the world’s poorest countries.
Calmy-Rey noted that Vietnam and Laos had introduced reforms that had involved the state, the private sector and civil society.
In this changing context, she said Switzerland’s development arm was re-orientating its activities.
This meant Swiss activities in the field would be intensified but the number of countries aided would be reduced.
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