The 11th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is scheduled to be held here on June 13-18. The following is a brief
introduction to the Geneva-based UN institution:
UNCTAD was founded by the United Nations General Assembly as
one of its permanent organs in 1964, against the backdrop that
developing countries suffered severe economic setbacks due to
discrimination in international trade by developed nations.
The establishment of UNCTAD aimed to activate and speed up the
world economic growth, particularly the trade development in
developing countries; to draw up principles and policies on
international trade; to expand global cooperation in economy and
trade; and to coordinate trade-related policies among governments
and regional economic blocs.
In the 1960s and 1970s, UNCTAD served as an intergovernmental
forum for North-South dialogue and negotiations on issues of
interest to developing countries, and became the focal point
within the UN system for tackling economic development issues
relating to least developed countries (LDCs).
In the 1980s, faced with a changing economic and political
environment and a significant transformation in economic thinking,
UNCTAD multiplied its efforts to strengthen the analytical content
of its intergovernmental debate, particularly regarding
macroeconomic management and international financial and monetary
issues.
Since the 1990s, in the wake of the conclusion of the Uruguay
Round of trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) and the establishment of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), UNCTAD has focused its analytical research on
the linkages between trade, investment, technology and enterprise
development, and assisted developing countries in better
understanding the complexity of the multilateral trade
negotiations and in formulating their positions.
The 192-member UNCTAD is headquartered in Geneva with Rubbens
Ricupero as the secretary-general. The quadrennial conference is
UNCTAD's supreme decision-making body.
In the last four decades, UNCTAD has held 10 conferences in
Geneva, New Delhi, Santiago, Nairobi, Manila, Belgrade, Geneva,
Cartagena (Colombia), Midrand (South Africa) and Bangkok.XINHUA NEWS AGENCY:
