ACCRA (AFP) — United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived Saturday night in the Ghanaian capital Accra where he is due to open five days of UN talks on globalisation.
The talks -- the twelfth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development -- come against a backdrop of rising food prices and an economic slowdown.
"The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development could not have come at a more crucial time," Ban said upon his arrival at Accra airport.
The soaring price of essential foodstuffs such as rice, wheat and corn in some of the world's poorest nations have already caused riots in Haiti and demonstrations across Africa.
"This is a worrisome situation as it poses a threat to the stability of many developing countries," he said, adding that solving this crisis immediately is of particular importance as those hardest hit by it are those who have been left behind by globalisation.
"Concerted international action is urgently needed to tackle this issue," he said, adding: "UNTAC's mandate is more important than ever in this context of deepening interdependence".
The UN chief said he also intends to address a number of African political issues, either in the conference proper or during bilateral talks on the sidelines of it.
"A number of political issues of concern, in particular the situation in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), are on the agenda of my discussions with regional leaders. I also raise the crisis in Zimbabwe, Darfur and Kenya," he told reporters at the airport.
He is expected essentially to use the conference to warn that not everyone benefits from globalisation.
""We are going to study the economic impacts of globalisation, including poverty reduction, wealth, employment, and we will draw the lesson that some countries benefit from globalisation, and others do not," he is expected to say in his opening address on Sunday afternoon.
Later Sunday, Ban is scheduled to meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva -- head of one of the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) of rapidly-expanding economies, and a key player in the stalled Doha round of World Trade Talks.
Ghana is the first leg of a trip that will take Ban to four African countries in all and then on to Europe.
After Ghana he is scheduled to head to Liberia, then to Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
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