Global economy, global challenge.

As intricate economic lifelines among the countries of the world multiply at breakneck speed, a phenomenon difficult to imagine only a generation ago, the international community is sharply focusing its attention on the global economy and its often hard, unyielding and chaotic realities. At the United Nations, developments on three important fronts indicate that global economic health will be a top international priority in 1990.

ho The General Assembly meets in a special session, scheduled from 23 to 28 April, to discuss how the global economy can best be managed. Preparations for the gathering during the first quarter of 1990 intensified, both at public meetings and behind-the-scenes consultations. The goal: obtaining the widest possible consensus on ways to build a stable, prosperous world economy.

lo Work on a new international development strategy for the last decade of the century forged ahead. The Assembly is expected to adopt the Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade (19912000) later this year.

OF A 105-nation group finished drawing up a draft programme of action for the 1990s for the world's 42 poorest countries. The text will be submitted to the Second UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries when it convenes in Paris in September. Growth in the 1980s: Uneven and lower'

Secretary-General javier Perez de Cuellar told the preparatory meeting for the special session on world economy that its "primary objective" is to make per capita incomes in developing countries grow at least as fast as in developed countries. With few exceptions, notably in South and East Asia, global economic growth in the 1980s had been "uneven and lower" than in the two previous decades, Mr. Perez de Cuellar reported.

Many developing economies had failed to keep pace with increased population, many countries were paying less attention to human needs, and the number of the absolutely poor had increased, he added. To strive for consensus. .

At a five-day session (26 February-2 March), a preparatory committee open to all Member States approved a provisional agenda and work programme for the General Assembly's special session on international economic co-operation. The focus of this eighteenth special session will be the "reactivation of economic growth and development in developing countries".

The preparatory committee suggested that delegations "strive for consensus on matters of substance". Until it meets again, for the third and last time in mid-April, the committee will continue informal discussions on a draft declaration to be adopted by the special session.

So far, two texts have been proposed: one submitted by Bolivia, on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries; the other by Canada. Using the'peace dividend'

The 57-point draft introduced by Bolivia on 2 March stresses that the Peace dividend" resources released by disarmament-should be used to promote global economic growth and development.

A substantial increase in net resource flows to developing countries-a long-term rather than a short-term development approach correction of fiscal deficits in the United States and other developed countries, and attainment of a 0.7 per cent official development assistance (ODA) target were also needed, it was stressed.

Other measures recommended would seek to reverse the deterioration of commodity prices, integrate Eastern European countries into the market-driven economy and find "a durable and comprehensive solution to the external debt crisis in the developing world".

Bethany Armstrong of Canada said that the "Group of 77" draft should have stronger references to population, human resources and environmental issues. It also should have provided a broader perspective on international economic integration and structural transformation.

The problems of developing countries should not be depicted in a North-South context, but should be placed in the context of an interdependent world, she said. Her country's proposal was not an alternative text, but rather contained ideas which should be taken into account when considering the "Group of 77" text.

Ireland's John 0. Burke, speaking on behalf of the European Community, said that in several respects Community views on international economic co-operation diverged from those maintained by the "Group of 77".

The 12 Community member States believed that there should be a decisive break with the failed policies of the past". A draft declaration should make it clear that developing countries were primarily responsible for their own development.

There also should be references to the role of democratic institutions, the relevance of market oriented growth and the development of human resources to ensure the health, education and other infrastructural requirements of developing countries, Mr. Burke said.

Wang Baoliu of China stated that although the "Group of 77" proposal was very comprehensive, reference should be made to the unbalanced economic growth in the developed and developing world. This imbalance could be corrected by, among other things, lowering interest rates, regional integration and placing greater emphasis on multilateralism. Strategy drafting takes off

The drafting of the strategy for the next decade will continue on 4 june at Headquarters. A fourth session of the committee working on the text is scheduled to end on 22 june.

At its third session (15 january and 19-23 March), the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole for the Preparation of the International Development Strategy for the Fourth UN Development Decade discussed and adopted a strategy outline recommended by the Assembly.

"The international trading system is likely to undergo important changes in the medium term", the Secretary-General predicted in a 21-page report to the Ad Hoc Committee (AIAC23217).

"The outcome of the Uruguay Round, the implementation of an internal market in the European Community and economic reforms under way in China, Eastern Europe and the USSR may bring new patterns of international economic relations and accelerated growth", he stated. Population issue squarely addressed

Wider recognition of the role of the private sector is a new clement in the draft programme of action for the 1990s for the world's least developed countries (LDCs), said john Sankey of the United Kingdom, Chairman of the intergovernmental group which approved the document on 6 April in Geneva. The Second Conference on LDCs will consider it in September in Paris.

The need for structural adjustment programmes, highly controversial 10 years ago, has now been accepted. The population issue, then also taboo, was squarely addressed. The importance of the role of women was emphasized to a much greater extent than in an earlier programme of action approved in 1981, Mr. Sankey told the press at the conclusion of a two week meeting of the Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee for the UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries.