Four-point plan for Third World aid

Press, 2 June 1981, Page 9

Four-point plan for Third World aid

NZPA-Reuter West Berlin The North-South Commission on Third World development exhorted Government leaders yesterday to act urgently at a Mexico summit meeting in October to ease poor countries’ problems. At the end of a five-day meeting in West Berlin the commission proposed a fourpoint plan for. the Mexico conference to face what it called an emergency already existing in the world economy. It urged those attending to agree on steps towards a global food programme, a global energy strategy, boosting loans and investments for poorer countries,and giving international financial institutions a broader base.

A score of Western and .'hird World leaders are expected in Mexico to seek ways of bridging the widening gap between rich and poor nations. Their talks will be based on the findings of the Brandt report issued last year by the North-South Commission, ; headed by the former West German Chancellor, Willy ’ Brandt. The report called for a reorganisation of the world economy to improve the trading position of the developing countries. A commission statement said the problems of developing countries and the world economy had deteriorated even faster than the report had forecast, and were aggravated by the East-West arms race.

It called for bold and courageous responses to create a new climate for cooperation between rich and poor. It - expressed alarm that some countries were retreating into short-term national solutions to economic troubles, and it said these would harm their own long-term interests. The most urgent problems were that many nations with payments deficits faced bankruptcy, and monetary instability and rising unemployment were in north and south. The commission said its four-point plan could help ease those problems and lead the why to stimulating the world economy.