New rich-poor talks open

Press, 31 May 1977, Page 9

New rich-poor talks open

NZPA Paris i The final Ministerial ses-| sion of the Conference on International Economic Co- > operation, the “North-South [ dialogue,” was due to open I late last evening (New Zea-1 land time), ending 171 months of talks between rich and poor countries on ways to achieve a fairer [world economic order.

I The three-day parley was due to open with speeches iby the United Nations SecreI tary-General (Dr Kurt Waldheim), the French Foreign' : Minister (Mr Louis de Guiringaud), and the two conference co-chairmen, Mr Allan : MacGeachen. of Canada, and ■Mr Manuel Perez Guerrero, jof Venezuela. j Statements by the delega-) 'tion heads, in most cases the I Foreign Ministers of the ■ eight industrial powers andi the 19 developing countries I taking part, were expected! to take up most of the first day.

Conference sources said > that the real bargaining on a host of controversial issues! in the fields of energy, raw materials, development, and finance would get under way in earnest today. The French police have mounted stringent security measures around the International Conference Centre at the Avenue Kleber, the venue several years ago of the Vietnam peace talks, where the Ministers are meeting.

On the eve of the opening, the Commonwealth Secre-tary-general (Mr Shridath Ramphal) issued a report for the Commonwealth summit meeting in London next [week saying that the rich ;and the poor seemed to be [looking at economic, trading, and development issues I through opposite ends of al j telescope. I “A world that sees its ! condition so variously can never be in harmony with itself or move easily on to accord.” Mr Ramphal was presenting a 104-page report by a 10-man Commonwealth ex-

perts group entitled “Towards a new international economic order.” i The expert’s group was established by the last 35nation Commonwealth summit conference in Kingston, Jamaica, two years ago. The experts were from New Zealand, Britain, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Tanzania, India, Nigeria, Zambia, and Canada, under the chairmanship of Mr Alister Mclntyre, secretary-general of the Ca-| ribbetft Community.

The Commonwealth has a population of 1000 million, which is one-quarter of the world’s population. But 80 per cent of its people live in countries where the annua! average income is under $2OO a year. < Painting a bleak picture, [the experts’ report said that (questions of survival rather [than development confronted poor nations suffering from today’s economic trends. It called for a fundamental transformation of the world’s socio-economic structure.

“The developing world should not find itself cast as

a supplier of raw materials and a reservoir of cheap labour, while remaining highly dependent on the developed countries for a major part of its capital equipment, other manufactured goods and productive technology,” it declared. The experts’ report made proposals on commodities prices, food, industrialisation, finance, strengthening of international institutions, and a host of other major world monetary, trading, and economic development issues. Its recommendation on commodities were particularly significant in view of the crucial Ministerial meeting in Paris.

The report said that the Commonwealth experts favoured a common fund as the most important element of the United Nations conference on trade and development’s integrated programme for commodities. The capital requirement for the fund would be $3OOO million to begin with. In time it would rise to $6OOO million.