Invest In Poor Nations, U.N. Leader Urges

The new U.N. secretary-general urged the world’s business leaders Saturday to invest in the poorest countries, saying 100 of the world’s countries are worse off now than they were 15 years ago.

With wealthy countries shrinking foreign aid budgets, business and the United Nations must work together to spread prosperity, and lasting peace requires more than deployment of peacekeepers, said Kofi Annan.

If private enterprise “cannot promote both prosperity and justice,” it will fail, said Annan. “We cannot build peace without alleviating poverty. We cannot build freedom on foundations of injustice.”