Yara Aquino
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – It is estimated that it will take US$ 50 billion per year for the world to achieve the eight Millennium Goals by the year 2015. Undaunted, Maria Lúcia Viotti, the director of the Department of Human Rights and Social Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, says she knows how to take care of that problem. First, she proposes two taxes: one on all international financial transactions and another one on the international commerce in arms. Then she suggests special withdrawals from the International Monetary Fund for development projects [linked to the Millennium Goals].

"It is crystal clear that we must work through international cooperation to find ways to raise additional funding," says Viotti, commenting on the fact that her suggestions were first placed on the table at a UN conference back in September 2004, where the ideas were sponsored by Brazil, Chile and other countries [the international financial transaction tax was originally proposed by James Tobin in the 1970s. Tobin went on to win the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1981].

Viotti made her comments at the round table which is taking place this week in Brasilia on "Promoting Progress Toward the Millennium Goals in Latin America" (Mobilização e Diálogo Social para Promover o Avanço dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento do Milênio na América Latina).

The round table ends today.

Translation: Allen Bennett