Role of the Council of Europe member states in the Second United Nations Development Decade

Recommendation 595 (1970)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 28 January 1970 (23rd Sitting) (see Doc. 2702, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28 January 1970 (23rd Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering that the First United Nations Development Decade represents a decisive step towards creating a world-wide community, increasingly inspired by a spirit of solidarity ;

2. Considering that co-operation between industrialised countries and developing countries must be improved in order that the Second United Nations Development Decade may bring renewed and increased progress towards the economic, social and cultural development of the third world ;

3. Considering that the targets of the First Decade in the field of economic growth and financial co-operation should be raised in the Second, and accompanied by indicators of the social progress achieved ;

4. Considering that these objectives should form part of a long-term strategy for economic development and social progress ;

5. Considering that financial and technical aid furnished by industrialised countries to developing countries, to be effective, must be based on genuine co-operation ;

6. Considering that financial and technical co-operation must take account of the long-term economic plans, the stage of development reached and the situation of the balance of payments of each recipient country ;

7. Considering that, in order to achieve the target of 1 % of the gross national product on a continuing basis, capital transfers to the developing countries should consist essentially of gifts or loans on favourable terms ;

8. Considering that the industrialised countries should make a common effort to supplement in a more effective way the system of aid-tying by untied aid and effective competitive procurement procedures in order to increase the real degree of assistance ;

9. Considering that even if private capital cannot replace official financial transfers, the industrialised countries should encourage private investment in developing countries given that these countries should make this possible by providing reasonable and effective guarantees ;

10. Considering that industrialised countries should open their markets on more favourable conditions than in the past to exports from developing countries, both of agricultural commodities and processed products and of manufactured goods, on condition that the developing countries give up abnormal competitive practices ;

11. Considering that the member states of the Council of Europe which represent the most important trading and economic group in the world, are under an obligation to take the initiative in implementing a genuine strategy for development co-operation by making the necessary commitments ;

12. Drawing the attention of governments to the debates on development cooperation held in Strasbourg on 27 and 28 January 1970,

13. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers, at its ministerial session in April 1970, invite each member state to make the following undertakings in the framework of the Second United Nations Development Decade :

13.1 to raise the transfer of net capital resources of the developing countries, as soon as possible and as the latest by 1975, to 1 % of their gross national product ;

13.2 to increase substantially official financial transfers to the developing countries as well as the percentage of these transfers put at the disposal of the multilateral financial agencies, and to make grants or, to a lesser degree, to provide loans interest-free or at low rates of interest to countries whose economic and social situation may warrant the same ;

13.3 to institute a general system of unilateral tariff preferences in favour of exports of semi-finished and finished products from developing countries, and to take all other appropriate measures to ensure a more rapid increase in the developing countries' export earnings, including the progressive abolition of selective tariff discrimination against primary commodities from the developing countries ;

13.4 to promote private investments in the developing countries, in particular by establishing an international insurance agency for private investments, and by concluding bilateral and multilateral agreements eliminating the double taxation of private capital invested in developing countries ;

13.5 to undertake the commitment of aid funds for periods of at least 3 years in order to facilitate the fulfilment by developing countries of their development plans ;

13.6 to encourage at the same time the balanced industrialisation of the more backward countries ;

14. And further recommends that the Committee of Ministers urge member states :

14.1 to implement without delay the necessary measures to improve the administration and increase efficiency of multilateral assistance programmes within the framework of the United Nations system ;

14.2 to organise national publicity campaigns setting out their own policy towards developing countries, and explaining the reasons for the increased aid effort required to ensure the success of the Second United Nations Development Decade.