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Mahathir Proposes World Tax to Help Poor Nations
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Taking globalization to task, Malaysia's outspoken prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said on Monday at a Global 2001 Smart Partnership Dialogue dinner in Kampala, Uganda, that the world must accept the notion of a world tax.
The aging, but combative, leader said this type of tax would ensure that globalization efforts initiated by richer nations would be more equitable, and that all countries, rich and poor, should accept it.
Mahathir is perceived as a major force against absolute globalization, criticizing richer nations seemingly unfazed by the fate of poorer and less-economically equipped nations.
He once said that the process of globalization and the knowledge economy could divide the world into two, and be advantageous for rich nations.
Mahathir states that a world tax would prevent globalization from becoming detrimental to poorer countries in Africa and Asia, as well as South America.
"The world tax should be for the construction of needed infrastructure for the poor countries which can catalyze their development and access to the world market.
"Not only will these infrastructure facilitate the opening up of these poor countries, making their exports more competitive and imports cheaper, their construction will also create jobs and generate wealth," he said in Uganda.
Mahathir added that the world tax would also benefit richer countries, as "the world will be richer because of the physical opening up of the poor.
"The already rich will get richer but the poor will get a little of the wealth and infrastructure needs of their countries."
Mahathir also stressed that the tax should come on top of normal aid given to poorer countries, saying that regular aid from rich nations tends to place poorer nations under obligations.
This is the second time Mahathir has expressed the need for a world tax.
He earlier suggested that rich countries should pay statutory taxes to the world because they had been enriched by it.
"I hope the poor countries will not reject this idea. The rich will not even take note of this proposal.
"But if they want the poor to come on board with their World Trade Organization (WTO) and globalization, they should make wealth-sharing quite certain by agreeing to this world tax."
Mahathir has also stressed in several speeches within international forums that both the WTO and the globalization process are controversial and anti-poor.
Several experts from developing countries has also stressed there will be a wide digital and economic divide if globalization continues without taking into consideration the needs of poorer nations.
Mahathir, in an attempt to set an example, said Malaysia, which had benefited from business activities worldwide, was willing to pay such a tax.
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