BANGKOK OPENING OF UNIDO GENERAL CONFERENCE.

Nov 12, 1987

BANGKOK OPENING OF UNIDO GENERAL CONFERENCE.

BANGKOK, NOVEMBER 10, 1987 (OPECNA) – Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda urged all countries here Monday to strengthen the multilateral trading system by reversing protectionism and dismantling all trade distortions.

Speaking at the opening of the General Conference of the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), he called for "greater market transparency" which alone could help third world countries truly participates in world trade.

He said only with unrestrained world trade could developing countries hope to make meaningful advances, towards industrial development.

Tinsulanonda said the debt crisis was another major factor contributing to the plight of developing countries, particularly in their industrialisation efforts. In the last 10 years, this had cast a shadow over their economic development, he added.

UNIDO Director General Domingo Siazon said industrialisation was the key to development and it required effective international co-operation.

He said much was needed to increase the mobilisation of domestic and external resources for industrialisation, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and the least developed countries. He called for making effective and efficient use of all resources.

Siazon informed the Conference that in 1988 UNIDO would deliver a technical package worth 110 million dollars, but added that it depended on support form member states and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP). He asked member states to pay their contribution in time.

The Director General said UNIDO’s work in the coming years would be a "judicious mix of continuity and change". It would mean intensifying existing programmes and lines of activity, while developing new and innovative approaches based on the strengths of the organisation across a wide spectrum.

The Conference, which ends Friday, elected Korn Dabbaransi of Thailand as President of the session. Bhutan, Cote D’Ivoire, Greece, Haiti, Peru, Poland, Sweden and the USSR were elected Vice Presidents.