UNDEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28169, 7 January 1957, Page 9

UNDEVELOPED COUNTRIES

N.Z. OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED FUND

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, Jan. 5.

New Zealand has strongly urged the under-developed countries of the world to worry more about improving their agriculture and less about building up industry. These countries had too readily embraced the idea that industrialisation was a prerequisite to a high national standard of living, Mr N. V. Lough, of New Zealand, told the General Assembly’s Economic Committee.

So rich was the agricultural economy in New Zealand, said Mr Lough, that his country’s problem was to restrain rather than encourage capital formation, to be sure that the consumers’ needs were not neglected. Mr Lough presented this view in reiterating the New Zealand Government’s opposition, at the present time, to a proposal to establish a special United Nations fund for economic development. The United States and Britain, with the support of Australia. Canada, and New Zealand, have opposed the proposal on the ground that most of the money would have to come from them, and they cannot afford it until something is done about disarmament.

Mr Lough said any move forward in planning for the fund would be “premature” until the major industrial countries had agreed that they could contribute. In the meantime, Mr Lough urged that these countries start developing themselves by building up the productivity of ; their agriculture, and thus creating the “farm surplus that is essential to provide savings for investment.”