NEW YORK, April 27 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday rang the opening bell to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
It is believed to be the first time a chief administrative officer of the world organization opened trading.
"My role at the United Nations typically keeps me from taking sides, today I hope my presence helps to trigger the bulls and not the bears!" he said at the NYSE. Annan was present for the launching of The Principles for Responsible Investment, what he described as "a set of global best-practice principles."
Until recently it would have been unusual for the secretary-general to make such an appearance, he said. "Galvanized in particular by the advance of globalization and trade, there has been a profound convergence between the goals of the United Nations and those of the private sector and financial markets."
He said: "The U.N. objectives -- peace, security, development -- go hand-in-hand with prosperity and growing markets. If societies fall, so will markets."
The secretary-general recalled his effort to enlist corporate cooperation in The U.N. Global Compact, what has become "the world's largest corporate responsibility initiative," now with nearly 3,000 corporate participants and other stakeholders involved.
In a separate initiative he said that more than 160 banks, insurers, fund managers and others are involved in the U.N. Environmental Program's Finance Initiative.
"But a serious gap has become obvious," Annan said. "There is a disconnect between corporate responsibility... and the actual behavior of financial markets which all-too-often are guided primarily short-term considerations at the expense of longer term objectives."
The new initiative offers "a path for integrating environmental, social and governance criteria into investment analysis and ownership practices," he said, adding that if implemented, the principles potentially can align investment practices with U.N. goals.
