unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/11/89)
co-operation and development, two areas in which there was a
great absence of hope.
Despite an adverse economic, financial and political context,
Chile had succeeded in its efforts towards modernization and
development. To Chile, it had not been a "lost decade".
Chileans were heaping the harvest of a stable
and strong economy. He reviewed the measures carried out and the
achievements of his Government, including an inflation rate
compatible to the requirements of the development process. His
country was still confronting grave problems, but there was
optimism that they would be solved.
It was essential to have adequate conditions in the
international economic system in order to carry out development
plans, he continued. Unfortunately, the international climate
was conspiring against the development process of developing
countries. The developed countries had the responsibility to
create a favourable international climate. However, developing
countries should not place the blame for all their problems on
developed countries. Developing countries must undertake
internal change and adapt to new realities. Environmental
problems could only be tackled through co-operation by all
countries. He supported the United Nations conference on
environment and development, to be held in Brazil in l992.
MUHAMET KAPLLANI (Albania) said the world economic situation
provided evidence of a disproportionate development in various
regions, and of fluctuations deriving from the economic policies
of a number of developed countries which looked after their own
interests at others' expense. Those policies had generated
polarization on an international scale, with "inevitable
political consequences". The international community must
acknowledge that, at a time of unprecedented scientific and
technological discoveries and of increased production of certain
economies, the prospects of the developing countries were
gloomy.
The persistence of the debt crisis was a true barrier to the
development of the developing countries, he said. Debt had
become a political as well as an economic issue. Another
negative phenomenon closely linked to current economic
developments was the "never satisfied appetite" of the developed
countries to make "fat profits at any cost" which had resulted in
irreversible ecological damage to the planet. It was ironic to
hear the industrially developed countries warn the developing
countries against uncontrolled development that might harm the
environment.
International trade constituted one of the most important aspects
of international economic relations, he said. Albania had been
and still was in favour of open, equitable and free trade,
unhampered by protectionism and trade barriers. Trade must
contribute to the process of the developing countries by
allowing their access to markets in the developed world. The
arms trade and drug trafficking, however, had become obstructions
to development, and the peoples of the world needed genuine
trade which stimulated development. He cited his country's
experience with economic development, saying Albania was
self-sufficient in food production and had developed both heavy
and light industries, including the extraction of minerals.
ENRIQUE MORET (Cuba) said the changes in the international scene
related to disarmament were encouraging. Unfortunately, the
same was not happening in the area of international economic
co-operation. The factors responsible for the economic and
social crisis in the majority of developing countries had not
changed, they had gotten worse. He listed some of those factors,
including
protectionism and terms of trade, and said they were a threat to
social and political stability in developing countries.
He called for a commom strategy to be devised to solve the debt
problem. Reviewing the situation of external indebtedness in
Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, he asked: how could
the international community refer to the existence of a strategy
to solve the debt problem? It was unacceptable to pay the debt
with the hunger of people. Adjustment programmes called for by
international financial institutions could endanger the
democratic processes on the political level. The debt question
could not be tackled as an isolated phenomenon. Only with the
establishment of a new international economic order could there
be a solution to the debt problem.
The two preparatory sessions for the new international
development strategy had made no headway, he continued. He
hoped the next session would achieve meaningful results. A
strategy should continue to have fixed targets and objectives,
and the problems afflicting developing countries, such as
external debt and environment, should be among its highest
priorities. The special session should also be an opportunity
for the re-opening of the North-South dialogue. He referred to
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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