Historical background

The Bandung Conference held in 1955 was attended by all the great political stalwarts of newly independent African and Asian countriess. For the first time an attempt was made by them to launch co-operation between developing countries ‘on the basis of mutual interest and respect for national sovereignty’. These countries sought to establish their own independent identity as a group opposed to neo-colonialism by either the USSR, the United States or any other imperialistic nations of the world. The Conference was aimed at restoring economic and cultural links within the South, severed due to colonialism, while strengthening further the links between the North and the South.

The Final Communique of the Conference underlined the need for developing countries to provide technical assistance to one another through the exchange of experts, and trainees ; pilot projects and provision of equipment for demonstration purposes as well as the exchange of know-how and the establishment of regional training and research institutes. The Communique further recommended the need for collective action for stabilizing international prices and the demand for primary commodities, the diversification of export trade by the processing of raw materials before export ; the promotion of intra-regional trade fairs mid a review of freight rates. It also agreed to encourage the establishment of national and regional banks and insurance companies. There was, however, no follow-tip or any mechanism to implement the proposals of this historic Conference until 1962, when the Group of 77 developing countries was set up. The Bandung Conference was, therefore, a harbinger of things to come for the G77.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) created in 1962 is a grouping of til countries (as at June 1994) who continue to feel the need for a common platform of their own and the movement mirrors the issues above in the spirit and essence of its founding. In fact, the Bandung Conference laid the early foundation of non-alignment although there were some 'aligned' countries (Pakistan, Turkey and Philippines) at the Conference. The main objective of the NAM is to foster a political togetherness, which aims at providing confidence, even to very small countries, to stand on their ow-n feet. Such confidence is imperative for sustainable development. The role played by the NAM in the process of decolonization was vital, as for example in achieving the independence of Namibia.

Issues raised by the Bandung Conference were strengthened by the NAM. By the 1960s a larger number of new and developing states who had joined the United Nations and begun to use it as a forum to voice their discontent with te international economic and social system certainly had been influenced by the initiatives of the Bandung Conference. A landmark of this period was the Joint Declaration made by developing countries at the 18th Session of the General Assembly in New York in November 1963. They declared that in order to reach basic agreement on a new Intemanonal trade and development policy, the General Assembly of the United Nations should adopt concrete measures. including:

• creation of conditions for the expansion of trade between countries at a similar level of development, at different stages of development or having different Systems of social and economic organization;

• progressive reducation and early elimination of all barriers and restrictions impeding the exports of the developing countries, without reciprocal concessions on their part;

• increase in the volume of exports of the developing countries in primary products, both raw and processed, to the industrialized countries, and stabilization of prices at fair and remunerative levels;

• expansion of the markets for exports of manufactured and semi-manufactured goods from the developing countries;

• provision of more adequate financial resources at favourable terms so as to enable developing countries to increase imports of capital goods and industial raw materials essential for their economic development. and better co-ordination of trade and aid policies:

• improvement of the invisible trade of the developing countries, particularly by reducing their payments for freight and insurance and the burden of their debt charges;

• improvement of institutional arrangements, including, if necessary, the establishment of new machinery and methods for implementing the decisions of the Bandung Conference.

The Declaration further stated that:

The developing countries are looking to more stable and healthy international economic relations in which they can increasingly find from their own resources the means required for self-sustaining growth. The developiug countries are confident that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development will not only be able to contribute to the acceleration of their economic development, but will also be an important instrument for promoting stability and security in the world.

This list of issues indicates that the rationale behind the Declaration was to bring about fuller intemational co-operation so that greater progress could be made towards the attainment of 'collective economic security' of the newly independent countries vis-a-vis the developed countries. The Declaration also emphasized that intemational trade was one of the instruments through which world peace could be guaranteed.

Under these circumstances and in a setting of Cold War tensions the period l960-70 was declared the United Nations Development Decade. Under this Decade a programme of economicc growth of 5 per cent per year in the developing countries was envisaged. The proposal was studied by the Conference Secretariat of UNCTAD I which found that the realization of this target was beyond reach, unless the prospects for the grrowth of export earnings of the developing countries were increased to what was needed to finance the required rate of import growth.