By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 25 1995 (IPS)

The politics of U.N. peacekeeping are being quietly overshadowed by the magic of the market place.

“U.N. peacekeeping is a multi-billion dollar business,” Ralph Cwerman of the U.N. Association of the USA (UNA-USA) said here even as peacekeepers were being driven out of Bosnia.

The competition in the market place is so intense the New York- based Association is hosting a series of well-attended seminars to help mostly U.S. businessmen grab a piece of the action.

“Even China has expressed interest in a seminar on U.N. procurement,” Cwerman told IPS.

Figures released Monday show that overall U.N. purchases — mostly for peacekeeping operations — have jumped from 3.5 billion dollars in 1993 to an estimated 4.1 billion dollars in 1994. About 43 percent of total U.N. procurement relates to peacekeeping activities.

The United States has once again emerged as the largest single supplier of goods and services to the world body, whose shopping list includes goods ranging from armored personnel carriers and cellular phones to drugs.

According to a 372-page guide released by UNA-USA, ‘How to do Business with the United Nations’, the 10 major suppliers in 1993 were all from the industrialised world.

They are: the United States (505 million dollars), Italy (292 million dollars), Britain (173 million dollars), Canada (159 million dollars), Germany (149 million dollars), Japan (128 million dollars), France (108 million dollars), Switzerland (77 million dollars), Belgium (73 million dollars) and Australia (72 million dollars).

At a time when the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress moves to reduce funding to the world body and its affiliated agencies, the U.S. share of the growing U.N. market has increased from 505 million dollars in 1993 to an estimated 750 million dollars in 1994.

Cwerman said when they showed the figures during a visit to Capitol Hill last year, “most people in Congress were shell- shocked.”

The United States currently pays 298.2 million dollars annually towards the United Nations’ regular budget (about 25 percent of the total) and about one billion dollars (30 percent) towards the peacekeeping budget.

Beginning in October, however, Washington plans to reduce its peacekeeping contributions to 25 percent, in line with its contributions to the regular budget.

The growing multi-billion-dollar U.N. business, however, is far beyond the reach of most Third World nations.

Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia says the U.N. procurement system should be made more transparent, providing a fair chance to Third World businesses to take a crack at the market.

Ambassador T.P. Sreenivasan of India told IPS that U.N. procurement specifications were such that developing countries were at times unable to bid. He said while India was making a special effort to bid for these U.N. contracts, they were running into constraints, such as the timing of delivery.

Sreenivasan said the idea of holding seminars for potential suppliers was a good idea, but such exercises should also be held in developing countries so that Third World suppliers could be educated about U.N. procedures and requirements.

Cwerman said India was however a potentially big supplier just coming into the market. “We are willing to go to any part of the Third World to advise them how to sell to the United Nations,” Cwerman said.

Sreenivasan said he does not see a deliberate attempt to shut out developing nations from the U.N. procurement process.

Cwerman agrees, saying “there is absolutely no evidence of any quota system.” He argues that geography is an important factor since transportation costs could ultimately make the difference in the delivery of services.

In U.N. operations in Africa, South Africa was one of the major suppliers. And a number of developing countries in Asia provided goods and services to the U.N. peacekeeping operations in Cambodia.

The U.N. peacekeeping budget has skyrocketed from 230 million dollars in 1988 to 3.4 billion dollars in 1994. In 1995, the projected peacekeeping budget of 3.1 billion dollars is more than double the regular budget of about 1.3 billion dollars.

Addressing a group of New York stockbrokers recently, Secretary- General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations buys more goods and services than the 14- member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), one of the world’s largest military alliances.

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