Projections

XV. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED ON THE REPORTS OF THE SECOND COMMITTEE
1517. Projections

The General Assembly, Considering the importance of projections of certain major international economic trends, particularly in the field of primary products, Aware of the special importance of such projections to the less developed countries, including those which have recently achieved their political independence, for the formulation of their long-term policies and plans for economic development, including the use of their natural resources, Recalling its resolution 1428 (XIV) of 5 December 1959 on world economic development, Taking note of the activities of the Economic and Social Council in this field, and in particular of its resolution 777 (XXX) of 3 August 1960 concerning the solution of problems relating to methodology, comparability and collation of relevant data, Believing that the need to accelerate the economic development of the under-developed countries calls for an intensification of all activities conducted in this field, in order to make available even tentative data on the medium- and long-term prospects for the production and exports of those countries in the light of the longer-term trends prevailing in the world economy,

1. Endorses Economic and Social Council resolution 777 (XXX);

2. Requests the Economic and Social Council to intensify its work in the field of economic and social projections;

3. Recommends that the regional economic commissions continue and intensify their activities in this field;

4. Welcomes the decision of the Commission on International Commodity Trade to continue the consideration of this question at its next session and invites it to make such recommendations as it deems appropriate;

5. Requests the Secretary-General, bearing in mind the recommendations of the Commission on International Commodity Trade, to prepare, in consultation with the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and in co-operation with the executive secretaries of the regional economic commissions, a study containing tentative medium- and long-term projections of the prospective international demand for, and supply of, selected major primary commodities at present exported by the under-developed countries;

6. Further requests the Secretary-General to submit this study, together with a detailed note on the methodology used and the problems encountered, to the Economic and Social Council for consideration at its thirty-fourth session and for transmission, with its observations, to the General Assembly at its seventeenth session.

948th plenary meeting,
15 December 1960.