Unctad

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

The work of UNCTAD, under the Officer-in-Charge, Mr. Carlos Fortin, was dominated during the past year by the forty-first session of the Trade and Development Board and its subsidiary bodies, and the United Nations International Symposium on Trade Efficiency, as well as by the preparatory process for the ninth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. I have proposed for approval by the General Assembly the appointment of Mr. Rubens Ricupero as Secretary-General of UNCTAD. His appointment would be effective as at 15 September 1995.

During this period, the Trade and Development Board undertook a preliminary analysis and assessment of the final act of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The States members of UNCTAD recognized the important role it could play in the post-Uruguay Round period in enhancing the ability of developing countries to take maximum advantage of these new opportunities and in recommending measures to mitigate the consequences on countries that could be adversely affected. The respective roles and functions of UNCTAD and the World Trade Organization have been more clearly delineated.

UNCTAD also started implementation of the decisions taken during the mid-term review of the Cartagena Commitment in May 1994. The commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of UNCTAD at the first part of the Board's forty-first session in September was the occasion for States members to reaffirm their full support to the organization and to look to its future orientation. Finally, the preparatory process for the ninth session of the Conference, to be held in the spring of 1996, started in a spirit of cooperation and with the conviction that the Conference should address in an innovative and action-oriented way the economic issues facing the international community.

The Trade and Development Board, at the first part of its forty-first session, in September 1994, adopted a...