International economic order:
The developing countries mostly threw off the colonial yoke in the 1940s and 1950s, and ever since they have been struggling to stand on their feet for the Iand of development which would benefit their people. You would have realised that a crying need of our times is development which would satisfy the national needs as well as the aspirations of the common people of the developing countries. Right now, there exists a cumulative backlog of poverty, ignorance, ill-health, unemployment and untold misery among vast sections of populations in these countries. These problems are mounting day by day. Lack of resource for all-round human development is known to be continuing cause of explosive growth of population and environmental pressures. Many of the countries have tried to reconstruct a society where satisfaction of the minimum needs of the entire. population would be the first priority of development. But this development has mostly eluded us. We have not been able to make policy choices in keeping with our national needs and aspirations. The strategic, industrial and commercial interests of the countries criss-cross in %highly interdependent world of today. Experience has shown that the developing countries are forced by circumstances to do what suits the developed countries most. For example, to defend ourselves, we have to buy modern weapons from the developed countries, and replace them as new weapons are introduced by them; we buy modem goods or import technologies from them to produce those goods. This has given rise to discussions in the developing countries about adopting a totally different path of development, i.e., a path of development which would not be an imitation of the stages through which the developed countries hie passed. The term "alternative development strategies" is used for this purpose. We would not be copying any one, we would be findmg our own way of sati&ing the most urgent needs of our We would like to evolve a new economic and political system, which would combine competition and enterprise with human welfare and planning. A strategy would have to be developed in which the character, content, direction and pace of development would be firmly under national control.
The strategy would need to be followed by a plan to rearrange production, to mobilise resources and allocate them to all relevant sectors. Steps would have to be taken to generate and put to use appropriate science and technology for national devcloprnent. Internationally, such feelings were so strong that, in 1974, the United Nations passed a resolution called the "New International Economic Order-Declaration and Programme of Action" We give you just a few lines from it, whlch reflect the conditions whch prevail. Para 1 of this resolution say, "The greatest and the most significant acllievement during the last decades has been the independence from colonial and alien domination of a large number of peoples and nations which has enabled them to become members of the community of free peoples.
Technological progress has also been made in all spheres of economic activities in the last three decades, thus providing a solid potential for improving the well being of all peoples. However, the remaining vestiges of alien and colonial domination, foreign occupation racial discrimination, apafheid, and neo- colonialism in all its forms continue to be among the greatest obstacles to the full emancipation and progress of the developing countries and all the people involved. The benefits of technological progress are not shared equitably by all members of the international community.
The developing countries which constitute 70% of the world's population, account for only 30% of the world's income. It has proved impossible to achleve an even and balanced development of the international community under the existing international order. The gap between the developed and the developing countries continues to widen in a system which was established at a time when most of the developing countries did not even exist as independent states and which perpetuates inequality."