Every year, the Wall Street Journal and the
Heritage Foundation publish the Economic
Freedom Index. It is all about good governance. They plot every country in
the world, and there is a perfect curve between governance and economic
performance…if governments don’t play their role in creating the foundation of
good governance, I don’t think we can create the market solution.
Two
other observations from this conference if I may; profit was not a dirty word.
And it is in many UN forums and others with campaigning NGOs. They seem to be
almost afraid of a relationship with business, and profit is dirty somehow. The
other thing that struck me is, if we succeed in bringing the least developed
countries out of poverty, and you look back in history, I think you will find
that there was a very unique relationship that developed between the private
sector, NGOs and national governments that made it all possible. I am not sure
how much the UN plays a role in that though…