Palestinian economy – UNCTAD report (excerpts)

REPORT OF THE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD

ON ITS FORTY-NINTH SESSION 

held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,

from 7 to 18 October 2002

Volume II

Summary of proceedings

Chapter I 

OPENING STATEMENTS

1. The President said that the contribution made by UNCTAD to consensus building was widely recognized. Group D acknowledged the importance of UNCTAD, and hoped that the concerns of countries with economies in transition would receive increasing attention. With regard to the work of the session, under agenda item 3 on interdependence, key issues would include market access, the impact on development prospects of the emergence of international production networks for products such as clothing, telecommunications and audiovisual goods, and the impact of unfavourable price movements for the exports of labour-intensive manufactures on the contribution of trade to development prospects. With regard to item 4 on LDCs, he noted that building effective and sustained capacity in LDCs was complex and required a long-term perspective. On the question of LDC status, the intention would be to raise policy issues related to the question of effective benefits derived from LDC status with a view to identifying ways and means of better targeting benefits and to improving their use by LDCs. Concerning item 5 on Africa, a major concern raised in the secretariat’s report was that, while the current approach rightly emphasized the cen tral role of rapid and sustained growth in poverty alleviation, it continued to endorse the very stabilization policies and structural reforms that had barely succeeded in bringing about growth and reducing poverty in Africa over the past two decades. Increasing the probability of success of the strategy to reduce poverty in Africa called for a reconsideration of the respective responsibilities of national authorities and the international community. With regard to item 7(b) on technical assistance to the Palestinian people, the ongoing crisis in the region had not only eroded the benefits reaped from development efforts over the last decade, it had also effectively set the economy on a path of de-development. The depletion of the economy’s coping strategies threatened to produce long-term dependencies and increased vulnerability, hence the urgent need for renewed development efforts to strengthen the economy’s resilience, while setting it on the path of sustained recovery. Finally, concerning the post-Doha programme, questions that could be considered would be whether a development-friendly outcome was guaranteed and how successful the Doha work programme would be in reorienting the WTO system towards development.

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Chapter II

INTERDEPENDENCE AND GLOBAL ECONOMIC ISSUES FROM A TRADE AND

DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

IN WORLD TRADE 

(Agenda item 3)

37. For its consideration of this item, the Board had before it the following documentation:

“Trade and Development Report 2002” and “Overview” (UNCTAD/TDR/2002).

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62. The representative of Bahrain …

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63. UNCTAD was one of the leading organizations in terms of supporting developing countries’ efforts for closer integration into the world economy. It should continue its efforts in assisting economies in difficulty, and especially strengthen its technical assistance in support of a sustained recovery of the Palestinian economy. The entire Middle Eastern region was feeling the impact of the tragic events in connection with Israeli practices. The Palestinian economy was now in need of international support to rebuild its destroyed infrastructure and find a solution to the problems of unemployment and poverty.

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