unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/16/89)
COMMITTEE PREPARING NEW INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Posting Date: 09/14/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA
DISCUSSES PROPOSALS FOR THE 1990s
UN PRESS RELEASE:
The Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole for the Preparation of the
Internationa
Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development
Decade this afternoon continued consideration of the structure
of the International Development Strategy for the 1990s.
Statements were made by the representatives of Bulgaria, on
behalf of the Eastern European socialist States; France, on
behalf of the European Community
Denmark, on behalf of the five Nordic States; Japan; China; and
the German Democratic Republic.
Also making statements were the representatives of the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO); and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
Speakers stressed that the problems of the developing countries
should be taken into account in the formulation of the Strategy,
with particular focus on such issues as population, poverty,
ecological degradation and human resources development. There
was general agreement that the new Strategy should be realistic
and flexible, taking account of prevailing international
economic conditions.
The Committee will meet next at a date to be announced in the
Journal.
The Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole for the Preparation of the
International Development Strategy (IDS) for the Fourth United
Nations Development Decade meets this afternoon to continue its
general discussion of the preparation of a new development
strategy for the 1990s. The Committee, which began a five-day
session yesterday, is charged with drawing up a progress report
on the completion of the strategy for adoption by the General
Assembly in 1990.
Statements
ETIENE NINOV (Bulgaria), speaking for Byelorussia, Hungary,
German Democratic Republic, Poland, the Soviet Union, Ukraine,
Czechoslovakia and his own country, said the IDS should be
functional and should pursue more realistic and concrete aims,
contributing to narrowing the gap between the developing and
developed countries. Its main purposes and objectives should
consist in the promotion of sustained development and qualitative
growth of all States on the basis of a balance of interests.
Sustained growth should take into account the integration of
economic, social, sociological, energy and technical factors in
the policies of all States. Attention should be given to
internal and external aspects of development as well as a
country's right to choose its own socio-economic system and
development priorities.
He said ecological problems and human resource development should
also be considered in drawing up the IDS. Greater attention
should be paid to the improvement of multilateral forms of
official development assistance (ODA), through an expansion of
aid co-ordination using United Nations mechanisms as well as
consultations between donors and recipients. Special attention
should be paid to the needs of least developed countries, many
of which were in Africa. Long-term social and economic trends
of development should be studied to enable problems emerging in
the world economy to be identified and recommendations on
dealing with them made. It was important that the potential of
the entire United Nations system was utilized in the preparation
of the Strategy.
PAUL LEMERLE (France), speaking on behalf of the European
Community, said that the Strategy's framework should be suited
to its objectives and to world conditions. There was general
agreement that development should come through sustainable
economic growth; that economic growth should not place untenable
burdens on its beneficiaries; that development strategies must be
adapted to the evolving international economy and the
preservation of the environment; and that development was, first
and foremost, the responsibility of each State, whether
developing or developed. The new Strategy, extending to the
year 2000, should take account of changes that might occur within
that period, thus avoiding the shortcomings of earlier
strategies.
Priority responses of the new IDS should focus on five areas.
First, States should give priority to allowing conditions for
economic growth to continue, through combatting deficits,
inflation, and internal and external imbalances of all types;
developing infrastructures to support investments; and, for
developing countries, finding international markets and needed
technical assistance. Secondly, priority should be given to the
two local bases for autonomous development: institutions and
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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