I recently had a very fruitful dialogue with my counterpart, His Excellency Ali Al- Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We had a very cordial exchange of views particularly on the effect of the spiraling cost of fuel in the global market. While agreeing on the circumstances which compel oil producing countries to increase prices, I am particularly concerned about the hardships faced by developing countries as consumers due to oil price increases.

The phenomenal rise in the price of oil has affected almost every country in the world except the producing countries; the most affected being the third world countries or the developing countries.

The recent astronomical rise in the price has caused the virtual collapse of the economies of several developing countries and this in turn has affected the living standards of the ordinary people, even the matter of procuring basic essentials has become a serious issue. Therefore, it is very important to focus on the economic situation of the consumer.

I am now representing a consumer country. But very soon I will also represent a producer country. Even when my country becomes a producer, my focus will be to protect the consumer.

The oil price hike has affected the economic growth and indeed created a high rate of inflation resulting in the prices sky-rocketing to an intolerable height.

Needless to state, that oil is the major energy source on which agricultural and industrial activities are based, and in the absence of any alternative sources of energy at the moment, even the activities in these two areas have slowed down. Developing countries now find it extremely difficult to achieve their development targets.

The negative effect of this price hike, apart from lowering the living standards of the people, has made democratically elected governments of the developing countries targets of terrorist activities and destabilizes elected governments.

These are issues of such vital importance that it is hardly necessary to emphasize the need to address them by the International Energy Forum (lEF) in its forthcoming Ministerial meeting to be held in Rome in the month of April 2008. The agenda would be a multilateral dialogue amongst the member countries to find remedies such as alternative sources of energy, not excluding an appropriate mechanism to prevent further increase in the prices.

I would like to put forward a couple of important suggestions to be considered at the forthcoming International Energy Forum. I suggest that it is appropriate to monitor the comparative price increases and take remedial measures to minimize the negative effects.

I would further suggest that the attention of leaders of oil producing countries be drawn to the establishment of a Fund through which a certain percentage of price increase can be used exclusively to compensate developing countries.