International Development Perspectives for the 90s (The Distinguishedl Lecture)

Abstract

Chairman, Professor Naqvi, Professor Klein, Dr Kemal, Distinguished Participants, First let me express my deep gratitude to the Pakistan Society of Development Economists for having invited me to be present on this occasion to take part in this Seventh Annual General Meeting. I feel privileged indeed to be here. It is not the first occasion I ha~e had to visit Islamabad; but on this occasion, more than on previous ones, I have had the opportunity - thanks to this meeting - of making contact with so many economists and research workers in Pakistan. I have been given a subject which seems to be a little bit removed from the issues that have been discussed, and will be discussed, over the period of this session. I have been asked to talk about international development perspectives for the 90s. No doubt the reason which prompted Professor Naqvi to suggest this title, and to invite me in fact, was that I had the honour of being Chairman of the UN General Assembly's exercise on the preparation of a Strategy for the 90s, the socalled Fourth United Nations Development Decade. The General Assembly established, as was its practice on previous occasions, what is called a "Committee of the Whole" charged with the function of formulating and negotiating the text of what might be a Strategy for the 90s. This exercise was launched in the middle of 1989 and was concluded - I am happy to be able to say - on the 21st of December 1990, just a few weeks ago, when the Strategy was adopted by consensus by the Plenary of the General Assembly. The Strategy designates the Fourth Development Decade, the decade of the 90s, as starting on the 1st January of 1991 and ending on the 31st of December of the year 2000. So, today we are in the ninth day of the development decade of the United Nations.