Model UN - Second Position Paper

Some issues came up recently and as a result I am going to be the only person representing Macedonia's SOCHUM committee. Because of this, I had to write a second position paper in order to be prepared to discuss either one of the two topics that might be discussed. As I wrote earlier, one topic was the rights of disabled persons. The topic I wrote about this time was the social and humanitarian implications of foreign direct investment and foreign debt. I had to write this essay on a very short notice, so it is not as long as the first paper I wrote, but I did the best that I could. As always, the other members of the school's Model UN group were very helpful, offering whatever advice they could to help me complete the paper on time.


Position Paper Topic A:

The Republic of Macedonia has been greatly impacted as a victim of the current worldwide financial crisis, and it recognizes the effect of the crisis on humanitarian matters. Macedonia, being one of the least wealthy former Yugoslav states, has been classified as a landlocked developing state by the United Nations.

At the moment, The Republic of Macedonia is concerned more with Foreign Direct Investment than with foreign debt. Between the years of 2003 and 2007, Macedonia seemed to have actually benefited from Foreign Direct Investments. The number of countries investing in Macedonia appeared to have increased dramatically since the early 2000s, with Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands holding particularly large amounts of FDI stock. This was very helpful towards achieving the goal of developing the Republic of Macedonia. More recently, however, the global financial crisis has caused the investments in the country to begin decreasing again. This change was particularly noticeable in 2008 and 2009.

The Republic of Macedonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers the "promotion of economic potentials and opportunities to invest in the Republic of Macedonia" and "conducting active economic foreign policy" to be among the nation's top priorities. We believe that cooperation with large organizations, including multinational corporations, is a very important part of improving conditions within landlocked developing countries such as Macedonia. As such, it may be wise to keep the regulation of multinational corporations to a minimum.

Of course, we also believe that some amount of regulation by the United Nations is necessary, recognizing that maintaining the respect of human rights as an equally important goal. In addition to this, no matter how the Republic of Macedonia may benefit from foreign aid through direct investments, it is not willing to make any sacrifices in terms of its national identity; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs aims to preserve Macedonia's sovereignty and independence.