Special session on international economic co-operation set for 1990.

A special session of the General Assembly devoted to international economic co-operation, with particular emphasis on the economic growth and development of developing countries, will be held in New York from 23 to 27 April 1990.

The world body, meeting in resumed session, took the decision on 7 March by a vote of 123 to 1 (United States), with no abstentions, after intensive debate and negotiation in its Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

The session is expected to provide guidelines for a new international development strategy, to be operative during the Fourth UN Development Decade in the 1990s, and should culminate in the adoption of a document on ways of achieving multilateral co-operation in the economic field.

The United States opposed the decision, stating that while it supported initiatives to help developing countries, and would continue to do so, it felt that the proliferation" of special sessions of the Assembly diminished their value, and that the 1990 session would overlap in scope and substance with existing arrangements for dealing with economic matters.

The Assembly, which met in resumed session from 14 February through 7 March, also approved without votes an appropriation of $416 million to finance the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) to oversee elections leading to Namibia's independence (see section, p.4), and another $9.2 million to finance the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM), which is monitoring the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola.

In an explanatory statement regarding the 1990 special session, it was stated that it was in the international community's common interest to "take stock of the significance of the transformation of the world economy... and to provide more effective means of multilateral co-operation in the economic field". The session would review problems facing the world economy, consider the pressing priority issues in international economic relations ... and address those problems and issues in the light of their interrelatedness".

It also would be a "forum for dialogue, discussion and deliberation, focusing on enhanced international and regional economic co-operation, improved policy co-ordination and policy recommendations".

Preparatory body for development strategy begins work

The General Assembly authorized creation of an Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole for the Preparation of the International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade (the 1990s), began work on 15 March. Elected as Chairman was Gamani Corea of Sri Lanka, former SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The body will meet four times during 1989 and 1990.