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Delivered at the online launch of the IIEGA — 5 June 2024
Dear Colleagues, dear friends!
It is an honour and pleasure for me to welcome you to the online launch of the International Institute for Ethical Governance and Accountability.
Today, many words will be said about the importance of improving and promoting the principles of transparency in reporting, the fight against corruption and injustice. This is very important for economic development, more important than many people may think.
And it's not just about direct damage.
It's a matter of trust. Corruption destroys a culture of trust.
Trust is very important. Unfortunately, the format of my speech does not allow me to provide detailed data. Briefly: studies by the World Values Survey Association (Inglehart) and the Trust Barometer (Edelman) clearly show the correlation between the level of trust and economic performance in different countries of the world. When people are distrustful, they may waste resources on various transaction costs, complicated control procedures and waste of valuable time and opportunities.
But I wanted to talk more about something else.
There is such a wonderful phenomenon — Life.
Its magnificent diversity is based on several simple technologies. For example, a semipermeable membrane made of a phospholipid bilayer with protein transport channels. The membrane is selectively permeable: it lets through what is needed and does not let through what is not needed. Allowing chaos to be organized into organelles, cells, organs… organisms.
By the way, microprocessors are based on a similar semiconductor effect. But let's return to the topic.
The membrane gives the living organisms subjectivity, that means the ability to determine what is needed and what is not, thus it bears responsibility for the organisms and for life itself.
We live in a world where subjectivity is unevenly distributed. Let's look at democracy. I think we will agree that this is a pretty good idea. But if it works at the level of citizens, at the level of countries there is still a lack of not only equity, but even equality. The situation changes very slowly, over decades, even centuries.
In general, the division of the world into those who robbed during the European geographical expansion and those who were robbed has never stopped. Often, those who previously robbed with weapons subsequently continue domination over generations with other tools — corporations, digital platforms, media, non-government organizations, financial capital, intellectual property, standards.
Look at which countries receive the main benefits, and which countries have production facilities that are harmful to human health and ecosystems. Where bullets and opium used to kill people, now pollution kills people. Where people were taken into slavery, life in hunger and a lack of potable water are now common.
It could be hard to imagine, but it is possible to reverse the trend.
Stop being objects in the games imposed by others. Participate in the development of standards, write your own rules of the game, be a subject. It won't happen by itself — your rights wouldn't be given to you willingly.
The good news is that you are not alone.
An increasingly large part of the world community is in favor of building a fair and democratic system of domestic and international relations, based on the principles of true equality, consideration of each other's legitimate interests, and respect for the cultural and civilizational diversity of countries and people.
This is a nature-like structure: balanced and diverse. The pyramid can be turned over and fall. But the sphere is stable.
- For example, the principles I mentioned underlie the activities of BRICS. The history of this dynamically developing union, which already accounts for more than a third of the global economy, dates back to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, held in 2006. The forum is held annually; SPIEF-2024 has begun today.
- Tomorrow at the SPIEF we will sign a cooperation agreement between several exchanges in Eurasia. An international system for the exchange of indicators between commodity and raw materials exchanges will be created on the basis of this agreement. This is both an integration process to create a united Eurasian market and a mechanism for online generation of big data, on the basis of which it will be possible to make high-quality management decisions, carry out new industrialization, reform monetary policy and taxation. Note that usually the integration of exchanges occurs through M&A (a "subject–objects" vertical structure), but in this case absolutely equal participants (subjects) agree on interaction on an equal basis (horizontal system). This perfectly demonstrates the principles above.
- Another example: Singapore has implemented the National Director Accreditation Standard and Competency Model. Before, we used international standards, for example EU-NQF, and became one of the most attractive countries in the world for investment. The latest case: AstraZeneca chose Singapore as the location for the construction of a high-tech plant to produce the most promising drug to fight cancer. This Standard is a step on the path to subjectivity, supported at government level. Mr. Lawrence Wong, who oversaw the implementation of the standard, became Prime Minister of the Republic in May.
And in conclusion:
We are open to constructive dialogue and interaction with partners.
We are ready to work together to solve the economic and social problems of our times.
I hope that our event today will give a start to new promising initiatives and projects and will serve to increase mutually beneficial cooperation between countries and peoples.
I wish you success and all the best.
Let's build a multi-subject world!