Industrial powers conserve poverty in “banana republics”: N. Nazarbayev

Industrial powers deliberately conserve poverty in developing nations through free trade rules, President Nazarbayev believes. “All the developed nations used to protect their processing industries, regarding them as “fledging industries” (…) Now the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO demand liberalization and free trade”, President Nazarbayev said when opening the IV Economic Forum today in Astana. “Offering free trade – without protection - to developing economies, industrial powers keep on subsidizing a lot of their own industries”, he said. At the same time, according to the President, it is becoming more evident that “these measures destroy industries of developing nations and conserve their poverty”. “Unfortunately, ambitious programs such as UN Millennium Development Goals do not fully solve the problem; poor countries are set to remain raw materials-oriented, while developed countries are posed to develop even further”, President summed up.