“Subdued Optimism” In New Delhi

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31595, 5 February 1968, Page 13

“Subdued Optimism” In New Delhi

<NZ.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, Feb. 4. France has been chosen to make the first policy speech on behalf of the developed nations when the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (U.N.C.T.A.D.) resumes in New Delhi on Monday. Then for about the next 10 days the 2500 delegates will listen to policy speeches by delegates from both developed and developing nations before they get down to the hard bargaining of a policy for increasing aid to the world’s poor countries, so that the economic gap between them and the wealthier industralised nations is narrowed.

The mood today of both groups of delegates, the “haves” and the “have-nots”, as they prepare for two months of negotiating, is described by a conference source as one of “subdued optimism”.

In a document known as the Algiers Charter, the developing nations have already set out an impressive list of the help they are hoping to ob-;

tain from the wealthier nations.

The main point of their argument is that in the four years since the first U.N.C.T.A.D. conference was held in Geneva, some parts of their economy have become stronger, but the gain has been partly negatived by the larger advances made by the developed nations, which has resulted in a widening of the gap between them. The developed nations— Japan, Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and the Eastern bloc—have come to the conference full of good intentions, but when it comes to spending more money, many of them are now hamstrung by their own internal financial problems. Britain and the United :States have made it clear that, because of their balance■of payments difficulties, they 1 cannot increase their generosity to the developing najtions in terms of hard cash, : although they will be quite [willing to ease the problems of the poorer nations by an ; extension of non-financial [measures, scch as the granting of tariff preferences on I the developing countries’ exports of manufactured goods. ■ Some of the international [economists now in New Delhi expect, however, that the ; more buoyant economies of West Germany and Japan may enable these countries to in|crease their aid.