SUNS4370 Tuesday 9 February 1999

Development: On the road to Bangkok - UNCTAD X

Geneva, Feb 8 (Someshwar Singh) -- The Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD has begun the preparatory process for the tenth session of the Conference in Bangkok, by adopting the provisional agenda.

UNCTAD-X is to be held in early February 2000.

The draft substantive agenda, proposed by the secretariat and approved by the Board, is around the theme "Developmental strategies in an increasingly inter-dependent world: applying the lessons of the past to
make globalization an effective instrument for the development of all countries and all people."

A secretariat paper underlines that the developmental impact of globalisation has been mixed. While some developing countries have benefited, others have not. Economic disparities among countries have not been reduced, with the result that a number of developing countries, particularly the LDCs run the risk of further
marginalisation.

Tensions and imbalances of a systemic nature have also arisen, and, given the high degree of interdependence in the world economy, the risk of financial upheavals spreading across other countries and regions has
greatly increased.

The international community should undertake a rigorous and balanced review of the policy and institutional framework for global trade and finance, says the text of the agreed agenda at the 20th executive session of UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board.

In this context, says the secretariat, the conference provides member states with an opportunity to take stock of and review the major international economic initiatives and developments, in particular those that have taken place since UNCTAD IX.

The text calls on UNCTAD to consider the strategies and policies which are most likely to ensure the successful integration of all countries concerned, particularly the developing countries, into the world
economy on an equitable basis and to avoid the risk of further marginalisation.

Morocco's Amb. Nacer Benjelloun-Toumi, Chairman of the G-77 preparatory committee for UNCTAD-X, in a statement on behalf of the G-77, outlined a number of priority areas where attention needed to be focused.

These include: thorough preparations for the multilateral trade negotiations, including the development of a positive agenda for developing countries; investment and competition issues; development finance, debt relief and ODA; stability of international financial flows; reform of the international financial system; trade facilitation and trade efficiency; trade in goods and services; commodities; trade and environment; trade preferences; new information and service-based forms of economic activity and other emerging trends in trade; finance and development; enterprise development and competitiveness; and transfer of technology.

"In all these areas, the systemic constraints that hinder development will need to be given particular consideration," the G-77 noted. "In this same context, the specific problems of developing countries with structurally weak, vulnerable and small economies should be addressed in order to avoid the risk of their marginalisation; the integration and full participation of these economies and all developing countries in the global economy will contribute substantially to the overall objectives of world economic growth."

On behalf of the European Union, Ambassador W. Lewalter of Germany said he was confident that UNCTAD X would prove to be "a solid foundation for all of us to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century." And speaking for the Latin American and Caribbean group, Ambassador Carlos Perez de Castillo of Uruguay, noted that in the light of deep changes in the world economy, it was important to have "a broad framework of reference" for UNCTAD.

Ambassador Iftekhar Choudhary of Bangladesh said that the current malaise in the global economy threatened their further marginalisation.
He added that the preparations for UNCTAD X and the Third UN Conference on Least Developed Countries, scheduled for the first half of 2001, should reinforce each other.