The Commonwealth Business Council yesterday made nine recommendations to the heads of government attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) starting tomorrow.
A draft communiqué was presented to Commonwealth foreign ministers at a meeting yesterday afternoon.
The CBC, representing Commonwealth business interests, and on the basis of discussions held during the Commonwealth Business Forum, made nine policy-recommendations to governments and a proposal for a joint initiative “which the private sector believes will advance shared prosperity”.
Addressing the media yesterday, the co-chair of the CBC, Raul Bajaj said the major issue being raised was that of free-market access and, more importantly, fair trade across the board.
“The fate of the Doha Development Round still hangs in the balance. We are calling on heads of government to endorse the CBC’s recommendations on trade reform, especially for the removal of the distortions to world trade in agriculture, by targeting high tariffs and subsidies in developed country markets,” Mr Bajaj said.
He said that if the Doha Round of trade negotiations was not successful, the CBC had urged that countries that were willing should explore the possibility of establishing a Commonwealth preferential or free trade area.
Mr Bajaj said another issue of particular importance was the use of generic drugs in countries that could not afford to pay the costs of treatments available in developed countries.
“Generic drugs should be made available to those countries where people are dying… and care should be taken to prevent these drugs from finding their way back to the developed world,” Mr Bajaj said.
Hugh Morgan, who is also co-chair of the CBC, said the council had raised a number of other issues.
Mr Morgan said governments should help to strengthen the investment climate and competitiveness to facilitate business and trade. In turn, he said, regulation had to be proportionate, simplified and necessary for specific purposes.
“Governments should learn from the dangers of overly-complex business regulation which has strangled economic growth in many developed countries, which are now seeking to roll-back the heavy hand of state regulation,” the CBC said in its communiqué. Mr Morgan said taxation should also be kept simple.
Infrastructure-development continued to be a challenge for all countries, he said, and businesses were asking for the development of public-private dialogue on exploring innovative partnerships for infrastructure-development.
The CBC said it was also conscious of the importance of tackling skilled labour shortages.
“Business calls for an urgent dialogue with governments to address education, skills and human resource development. Government’s should also encourage each other to develop policies to increase the supply of skilled labour,” the CBS said.
Heads of government have also been asked to find sustainable public-private financial and business partnerships to maximise rollout of ICT infrastructure and services to empower local providers.
The CBC said businesses wanted any limitations on access to information flows based on cost or regulatory restrictions or barriers to be removed.
Finally, the Commonwealth Business Council called on governments and businesses to take concerted action to combat the production and sale of fake products, particularly pharmaceuticals.
“Governments are requested to legislate against this practice on the same basis as treatment of illegal drugs,” the CBC said in its communiqué.