YouSaid · the spoken record

Essy

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS ESSY

lines on the record: 96
first: 1991-09-24
most recent: 1993-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

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“The capability of the international community to grasp this danger and to find rapid and lasting solutions will determine our joint survival.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The effective globalization of the economy as well as the ever-increasing interdependence of nations today requires also an acceleration of history on the level of international economic relations, for the world must become aware of the fact that there can be no lasting peace, no universal prosperity, if the greatest part of humankind is on the sidelines of economic development and social well-being. In such a context, therefore, the North-South dialogue must be reactivated with the goal of seeing that further means are established to eradicate underdevelopment and poverty, which today represent the greatest threat of our era. For peace does not coexist well with poverty, as President Felix Houphouët-Boigny often says.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We are the privileged witnesses of political events of the highest importance, events that will shape international relations along the lines of a rapprochement among nations and will therefore contribute to the strengthening of peace and global security, essential foundations for the building of a more just world order and one of greater solidarity. However, despite the dynamics of peace, which promise better tomorrows, we must admit that the ideas of peace and security can no longer be limited solely to the political field, for the truth is that peace and security can be genuine only if economic development and social progress are ensured for all.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“This represents, therefore, a global scourge against which individual States are doomed from the outset, for the ravages of drugs spare no continent and no country, regardless of how powerful they may be. Africa is the weak link from which the international drug trade profits. Thus, given the extreme vulnerability and the precarious nature of the means available to the African continent to combat this danger, the international community should supply - specifically through the United Nations Drug Control Programme, with which my country is fruitfully cooperating - the needed financial resources. Since the end of the bipolar war, history has speeded up.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Ultimately, given the importance and complexity of the areas affecting the question of the environment, it is indispensable for the international community to openly support the development efforts of the African countries by granting them adequate financial resources and by helping them strengthen their scientific and technical capacities. Concerning the question of drugs and its financial ramifications, the gravity of these issues requires that the international community give them serious thought. The most recent studies of this phenomenon indicate that Africa has become one of the major centres for this illegal traffic. At the same time, we note that local consumption of hard drugs, in particular heroin and cocaine, are notably increasing in numerous African countries.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“More specifically, the Rio Conference, by adopting Agenda 21, reached a consensus on the planetary level concerning the need for immediate and bold international cooperation in the area of sustainable development and the environment. In applying Agenda 21, Côte d’Ivoire, for its part, has established regional environmental committees to draw up its white book on the environment, which will help it zero in on the objectives laid down in the Agenda. In this context, the elaboration of an international convention on the struggle against desertification is of critical importance for Africa, and we continue to place our hopes in the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on that convention.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We must acknowledge, however, that any assistance offered by the international community will be only a small contribution, given the magnitude of the development needs of the African continent. This assistance will be effective only if consistent and lasting solutions are found to our problems within the framework of an international cooperation even further based on interdependence and solidarity, in particular in the areas of international trade, foreign debt, the environment, the war on drugs, and the important question of raw materials, to avoid confining our countries to the exclusive role of purveyors of raw materials and allow them also, through the transformation of these products, to become consumers in trade relations.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We therefore welcomed the creation, within the OAU and ECOWAS, of machinery for the prevention, management and settlement of conflicts. We must recognize that our efforts at regional integration will remain futile as long as the global economic environment remains unfavourable and as long as our partners in the developed countries lack the necessary political will resolutely to tackle our countries’ problems in this interdependent world of solidarity. At a time when the marginalization of Africa is increasing, we welcome the positive initiative of the Government of Japan to hold, several days from now in Tokyo, the International Conference on African Development, which will allow the developed countries to better grasp the specific problems of Africa.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We wish here particularly to emphasize the extremely important role played in the area of financing by the African Development Bank in implementing the objectives of integration in Africa. We must hail the will this institution demonstrates in its efforts to establish positive correlations between actions implemented within the framework of structural adjustment programmes and the objectives of regional economic integration. This step by the African Development Bank affects the central elements of the development strategies of African countries. 32 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session It goes without saying that such integration can be implemented only in an environment which is one of peace, stability and security.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“From our point of view, such an exercise in structuring and harmonizing the institutional and legal framework of economic integration should be carried out and should rapidly be extended to all regions of Africa in order to pave the way for the building of the African Common Market, which we all so wish to see. It is also appropriate to note the great hopes we place on the establishment of the African Import-Export Bank, whose primary objectives will be to increase the level of African exports and of inter-African trade. We should also note the significant progress made in laying the groundwork for an expanded cooperation between our States in several areas, such as those of business law, the insurance industry, and the establishment of a body for regional statistics.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“One of the primary conditions of this development for our countries is just remuneration in primary commodities - mineral, mining and agricultural. Statistics show that Africa represents only 2 per cent of the value of world trade, and that inter-African trade represents only 5 per cent of the value of the region’s total external trade. These data remind us once again of the economic urgency for Africa to achieve genuine economic integration within the continent. In West Africa, this exercise has already begun, in particular within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), whose treaty has just been revised, and above all within the West African Monetary Union (WAMU), with the upcoming establishment of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Our States have had the political courage to embark upon deep-rooted economic reforms and our peoples have progressively become aware of the need for the adjustment effort. Thus in Côte d’Ivoire, for several years now, we have been implementing a set of measures of economic policy aimed at creating the conditions for economic recovery. The stabilization phase of this process has primarily tended towards putting our public finances on a sounder footing, which is basic to the revival of our economy and its integration into a larger collective within the region and throughout the continent. The extension of the democratic process in Africa is evident. But it is also clear that there can be no democracy without economic development, nor genuine sustainable development without democracy.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Additional causes that should be noted are the general inadequacies in economic management as described in the World Bank study entitled "The African Capacity- Building Initiative". All these factors taken together have led to the present crisis in our countries, manifested above all by a drastic drop in economic growth and an intolerable rise in unemployment, particularly among our young people - the driving force of our countries. The image this brief sketch of the African economic and social climate projects is hardly encouraging. In the face of such a situation, we believe that prospects for seeing the advocated solutions succeed lie primarily in a consistent approach to them.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We can therefore hardly be surprised that in the last United Nations Development Programme report on human development in 173 countries, 41 of the 53 African countries are among the 50 last countries in the classification. These pessimistic conclusions were reaffirmed in the reports of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. We are aware of the causes of this serious recession. Aside from the drop in economic activities in numerous industrialized countries, those causes are the collapse of commodity prices - for minerals, mining and agriculture - and the subsequent exacerbation of the foreign-debt burden on our economies, which in turn limits our investment capability.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“This weak recovery is primarily the result of a moderate growth in the global production of the industrialized countries, as well as a noticeable drop in the total production of those countries which formerly had planned economies. Unfortunately, these trends continued in 1993, and thus we are seeing a rise in unemployment and the emergence of serious social tensions throughout the world. These not very optimistic elements observed in the industrialized countries can only have negative consequences for other countries, particularly those of the developing world, among which the African countries remain the most vulnerable.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The United Nations, as a reflection of universal values, cannot stand outside the trend towards democratization which is sweeping across the world. The World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna last June, was of pivotal importance, allowing for a reaffirmation of human rights. If we can rightly be gratified by the fact that this Conference recognized the right to development as a fundamental human right to the disastrous economic situation in numerous regions of the world, and particularly in Africa, should remind us here of the need for a general awareness of the fact that human rights cannot flourish in a context of poverty and misery. In looking back over the economic situation, we note that global economic activity in 1992 was characterized by a slow recovery, growing by only 1.1 per cent.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The strengthening of preventive action by the United Nations must prompt us to pursue the process of restructuring and revitalization of its bodies to allow it to cope with these new challenges. Given the dominant role of the Security Council in peace-keeping and international security, the question of equitable representation in that body should allow for a lengthy reflection so as to find a solution acceptable to all - in this case, the expansion of the Security Council to accord with the growth in the number of our Organization’s Members and in the complexity of the problems submitted to it. Such an expansion should be based on rigorous and objective criteria which we need to define together, bearing in mind the imperative need for effectiveness in the taking and implementation of Security Council decisions.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“If the conflicts born of the cold war are now beginning to find solutions, it is none the less clear that we have entered upon a period of uncertainty, questioning and instability, with the re-emergence of a number of secondary conflicts that had been effectively frozen or repressed during the cold war and that are essentially of ethnic, tribal or religious origin, as illustrated by the wrenching events in Nagorny-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and the former Yugoslavia. It is becoming clear as well that in today’s world there are fewer and fewer identifiable enemies and more and more problems that are very difficult to identify. The United Nations remains the indispensable recourse for confronting these conflicts. Here, we solemnly wish to state our full support for the proposals of the Secretary- General contained in "An Agenda for Peace".”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In Asia, we welcome the outcome of the conflict in Cambodia, where the United Nations undertook one of the most ambitious and complex peace-keeping operations it had ever conducted. We congratulate the members of the United Nations Secretariat and the States that supplied various contingents for the success of this operation, which allows world public opinion fully to appreciate this other activity of the United Nations which is too often ignored.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It is quite fitting that the members of the jury for the Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, unanimously awarded the Prize for 1993 to those illustrious leaders of Israel and Palestine. As for the situation in the Gulf, where peace is still precarious, we reiterate our unswerving support for the full implementation of all resolutions on this conflict, particularly Security Council resolution 687 (1991) of 3 April 1991, as well as resolution 833 (1993). We call on the parties concerned to respect these provisions. We believe that this resolution is a major asset in assuring security and stability in the region.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The mutual recognition of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the signing in Washington on 13 September of the historic agreement on Gaza and Jericho convince us that the process begun in the Middle East is now irreversible, despite the obstacles that might arise on the road to peace. This is the moment to hail the courage, lucidity and self-abnegation of the high Israeli and Palestinian officials who have risen above circumstances and resolutely chosen peace. Their ardour in working for peace after such a lengthy period of war has been recognized and saluted by the international community.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Mandela, a spirit that led to the historic request made by the African National Congress (ANC) to the international community to lift the economic and diplomatic sanctions slapped on South Africa. We also welcome the agreement reached between the South African and Namibian Governments concerning the transfer of the port of Walvis Bay and the surrounding islands to the jurisdiction of the Namibian Government. In the Middle East we can finally discern, after so many years of war and built-up hatred, the prospect of a settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“For this reason we welcome with satisfaction the joint statement of the political parties of South Africa concerning their intention to organize free and democratic elections in April 1994. We also welcome the establishment of an executive transition council that, for the first time in three centuries of white domination, after the first multiracial elections will involve the black majority in political matters. 30 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session We send out an urgent appeal to those elements opposed to democratic changes in South Africa to refrain from acts likely to jeopardize the sensitive negotiation process, which would delay South Africa’s return to the family of nations. We welcome the new spirit inspiring the South African leaders, particularly Mr. De Klerk and Mr.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Côte d’Ivoire knows only two paths for the settlement of conflicts: resort to force or resort to negotiation, that is to say, dialogue. Recent events in the international arena have consecrated the value of dialogue, which has always been advocated by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, for the peaceful settlement of all conflicts. They clearly indicate how dialogue, conducted by responsible individuals, can, regardless of the nature of the conflict, serve as an extremely useful instrument for peace. In South Africa, the recent developments in the political situation are most encouraging, despite the uncertainties of the moment resulting from the escalation of violence.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It is also fitting to welcome the conclusion of the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims held at Geneva from 3 August to 2 September this year, organized by the Swiss Government and the International Committee of the Red Cross. That Conference allowed for a reaffirmation of the provisions of the major treaties of international humanitarian law aimed at the protection of populations during armed conflicts and for sensitizing public opinion concerning the valid bases of those provisions and the plight of civilian victims. Concerning Angola, progress made at the outset in the application of the Bicesse peace agreements in May 1991 now needs to be maintained, and efforts must be made and encouraged, both in the Security Council and in African forums, for the achievement of a just and lasting peace.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It is equally urgent that the international community come to the assistance, within the framework of Chapter VIII of the Charter, of States or regional organizations, participating in peace-keeping efforts in Liberia. It is also necessary that the question of the delivery of humanitarian assistance be rapidly resolved to allow for the regular supply of those regions of Liberia where famine is raging in order to prevent the incursions of armed bands in search of food that attack border villages and hamlets. Here we should like to congratulate all the non- governmental organizations that are making every effort, with courage, tenacity and dedication, to save human lives in that strife-torn country.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We welcome the firm determination of the political elements in Liberia to work for the ultimate collapse of the wall of hatred and enmity between Liberian brothers and thus to lay the foundation for a future of peace and prosperity for all. In this context it is urgent that the international community commit itself further to finding the necessary means for the rapid deployment of new contingents to reinforce the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Military Observer Group (ECOMOG) in Liberia to promote the effective implementation of the provisions of the Cotonou Agreement, particularly with regard to the entry into force of the Council of State, disarmament and the cantonment of factions.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We hope that the tireless and commendable efforts of the international community to re-establish peace in that country will, within the allotted time, lead to a positive conclusion and the reconciliation of all its sons and daughters. We also hope to see very soon a resolution of the conflict in Liberia. Recent developments in that brotherly and neighbourly country, which led to the conclusion of the Cotonou Agreement on 25 July 1993, tend to make us more optimistic about the rapid restoration of peace. Côte d’Ivoire has always wished fervently to see the re-establishment of peace in Liberia and has, in addition, acted along these lines, as the Yamassoukro Accords attest. We are gratified by the formation in that country of a transitional government in the form of a State council entrusted with the organization of general elections.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“So too, Africa, pushed aside by the disappearance of the bipolar world, has been torn by numerous internal conflicts with unfortunate consequences for the entire continent, which needs, rather, stability and peace within African States, between African States and between Africa and the rest of the world in order to deal with the imperative needs of its development and economic integration. The situation in Somalia continues to be of great concern, despite the presence of the United Nations peace- keeping forces, for the spectre of anarchy, intolerance in all its forms and violence continues to hover over that country.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Indeed, the collapse of the bipolar world seems, paradoxically, to have opened the door for new threats to international peace and security. The accumulation of poorly bandaged wounds, blind ambitions and feelings of rivalry and hatred built up over decades has re-emerged in various regions of the world in the form of extremely devastating and brutal fratricidal conflicts. Thus, Europe, whose level of socio-economic development did not prevent it from destroying itself twice in less than thirty years, is today still in the grip of a terrible conflict in the former Yugoslavia. That anachronistic and indescribably barbarous war has justified the creation, for the first time within the United Nations system, of an international penal tribunal, under Security Council resolution 827 (1993).”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Today’s world is moving towards a convergence around certain values, including the primacy of respect for human rights, the imperative need for democracy, development and disarmament and the leading role of law in international relations. Such development can only give rise to great hopes by opening up the possibility of correcting past mistakes, sharing the benefits of progress with all and ensuring the fullness of peace. With the beginning of real disarmament and the recent signing of the Convention banning chemical weapons, the relationship between war and peace is today undergoing a clear qualitative change. Unfortunately, however, we must recognize that the international situation is far from satisfying our hopes for justice and lasting peace.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Finally, my delegation congratulates and welcomes the States admitted since the last session to our Organization, which is thus moving ever closer to its objective of universality. The substantial transformations that have taken place in the world since 1989 have given rise to profound changes in international relations. All the points of reference that allowed us to analyse these relations with certitude have disappeared. The new atmosphere of confidence and the spirit of understanding, and at times of solidarity, that prevail in relations between States and peoples give grounds for hope and the rapid advent of a new international order that will be more stable, more just and more able to meet the aspirations of peoples for shared happiness in a world that hungers for bread and thirsts for truth.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“I should like to pay tribute to the wisdom of the Assembly in electing Ambassador Insanally to preside over this session, thus highlighting the outstanding role of his country, the Republic of Guyana, and beyond it that of Latin America in international relations. I also wish to congratulate the members of the Bureau and to extend to the outgoing President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, our warm congratulations on the excellent work done during his mandate. I should also like to reaffirm the full confidence of Côte d’Ivoire in the Secretary-General , Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. President Houphouët-Boigny, who has met him several times this year, greatly appreciates his impartiality and ability and his great devotion to his duties to the international community.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It is thus up to every State to support the activity of our Organization in order to enable it to carry out its difficult task effectively. My country, which has always made a determined search for peace the cornerstone of its foreign policy, will not fail to make its contribution to the building of this noble enterprise and to the shaping of the new world order which is emerging and which, to be solid and lasting, must be linked to the search for a world of peace, justice, and shared well-being.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The bipolar world that has held sway in the international order since 1945 has crumbled. Since the time of Alexander of Macedonia, great empires have arisen only to collapse in a process that has been broadly described by Professor Paul Kennedy in his Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Every century brings its share of innovations and surprises. The twentieth century which is now drawing to a close has brought great changes to human existence. It has seen people invent all sorts of instruments to advance thought, to cure as well as to kill. Today's world seems to have found unity through a certain number of values, among which is the primacy of law in international relations. Such a development can only strengthen the role of the United Nations in the maintenance of peace.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“That is why is it is important that conditions for growth and development in Africa be achieved as soon as possible, because they are quite obviously the sine qua non for the true and realistic exercise of the democracy that cements peace within African States, peace among African States, and peace between Africa and the rest of the world. As President Houphouet-Boigny often says: "Peace and poverty make poor bedfellows." That is why we exhort the international community to show more understanding for the question of remunerative prices for raw materials, upon which many developing countries depend, especially in Africa. Africa needs to be considered by the rest of the world as a partner rather than a burden. The partnership it seeks implies dignity rather than dependency, mutual interests rather than charity.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The elements of this new agenda, dealing with the last decade of the twentieth century, constitute a major challenge that Africa must meet with success if it is not to be irredeemably marginalized at the dawn of the twenty-first century, so full of promise for humanity. That is why the African countries, aware of the importance of the current and future stakes, as well as of their primary responsibility in achieving growth and sustainable development, have firmly committed themselves to regional integration and to accelerating the democratization process of their internal institutions.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Maurice Strong for his magnificent work and to ask him to be kind enough to guide the first steps of the secretariat of that Commission, because in our view that is essential in order to guarantee the effective implementation and proficient and speedy follow-up of the commitments made in Rio. As regards the critical economic situation in Africa, we remain confident of the ability of the international community to mobilize itself in the effective support of the efforts of the African countries to realize the aims of the new United Nations agenda for the development of Africa for the 1990s adopted by the General Assembly in December 1991.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“By way of example, I cite the EEC, which hopes to reach $4 billion, and Japan, which hopes to reach $8 billion in three years. We can only express our sincere gratitude for these fortunate initiatives, just as we commend those countries that have committed themselves to making contributions during the current session of the General Assembly. Our hopes are placed in the Commission on Sustainable Development that is to meet at the ministerial level; its work will be decisive in following up on the implementation of Agenda 21 programmes and their integration. In this context, and on behalf of my delegation, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to Mr.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Agenda 21 has highlighted several ways to achieve the objectives with regard to the transfer of resources through the following machinery: through the special increase of resources in the form of the "Earth Increment" in the World Bank; through the global environmental facility that will meet next December in Abidjan and whose objective is to increase its resources from $1.1 billion to $4.5 billion; and through debt alleviation, especially for middle-income countries. It is also worth noting that in Rio, several countries promised to increase their transfer of resources to developing countries, committing themselves to achieve 1 per cent of their gross national product to official development assistance by the year 2000. Some of them have announced special contributions.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Indeed, Cote d'Ivoire, like many other countries, has had to intensify the exploitation of its natural resources in order to honour its international financial obligations. This situation is not in the interests of sustainable development. For that, as agreed in Rio, the industrialized countries must, as a matter of urgency, take the necessary steps to help in the transition of our economies towards sustainable development, especially in implementing decisions aimed at the elimination of obstacles in the trade of raw or processed goods and the transfer of new and additional financial resources to developing countries. In this regard.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“It is therefore difficult for us to understand why the same machinery that has functioned so well internally and regionally in the Western countries cannot be usefully adapted internationally within the framework of raw materials in the relationship between North and South. Taking all this into consideration, it is perfectly obvious that only the conclusion of international agreements aimed at promoting stability in the rates of raw materials at remunerative prices would foster the implementation of production policies guaranteeing the preservation of the environment. In this context, it is good that the Rio Conference emphasized the close link that exists between the deterioration of the environment, indebtedness, and the deterioration in the terms of trade.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Furthermore, mutatis mutandis, such thinking underlay the idea of the common agricultural policy of the European Economic Community (EEC), the major aim of which was to ensure the security of food supplies within the boundaries of the community at prices that were reasonable for the consumer and both stable and remunerative for the rural population. Indeed, no country in the world can remain indifferent to the drop in income of its peasants. The United States of America and the member States of the EEC have understood this so well that they spare no subsidy in helping their farmers keep their purchasing power on a par with their efforts.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Indeed, taking into account the overall importance of raw materials in the economies of developing countries, and in particular the extreme dependence of some of them on a single product or small number of products from which they draw their main source of revenue, we think it perfectly logical to acknowledge that these markets should be organized in such a way that, while guaranteeing regular supply for industries using these products, the prices remain stable so as not only to allow for decent earnings for the processing industries but also to ensure remunerative prices and predictable earnings for producer countries.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“That is why I should like to avail myself of this opportunity to appeal most earnestly to the States members of the European Economic Community (EEC), whose constant support for developing countries has been unfailing, to take determined action, individually and collectively, in order to foster the forthcoming conclusion of new international agreements, particularly those relating to coffee and cocoa, negotiations on which are currently under way. This is also the place to affirm that, contrary to commonly-held views, we remain convinced, as far as we are concerned, of the ability of well-written international agreements on commodities to stabilize markets and thereby to foster the economic growth of countries that produce raw materials.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Such a situation must change, and to this end, the assistance and cooperation of our northern partners should no longer restrict us indefinitely to the role of providers of raw materials but rather enable us, thanks to the processing of part or all of our raw materials, to also become consumer countries. But pending this development, which should not be delayed, we producers of raw materials, be they agricultural, mining or mineral products, fervently hope that the markets for the majority of our commodities will be organized within the framework of appropriate international agreements that would take into account the best interests of both consumers and producers.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Even the International Development Association (IDA) today appears to be imperilled in that it is not sure that it will be able to obtain the $18 billion considered absolutely necessary for its functioning. Contrary to this trend, we welcome Japan's decision to hold, in 1993, a conference on development in Africa. As President Houphouet-Boigny has often said: "The real problem of Africa today is above all economic and financial". He also stated, recently at the OAU Summit in Dakar, that the only difference between developed and developing countries is that the former have the technological capacity to process our raw materials into finished products for their own consumption and to use any surplus for export, while the latter can only export their raw materials, be they agricultural, mining or mineral products.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“While we are asking developing countries to make ever-greater efforts and sacrifices, we see from the analysis of recent statements by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank heads, Messrs. Michel Camdessus and Lewis Preston, that rich countries are the ones setting a bad example in managing the world economy. These countries, they say, are not conforming to any budgetary discipline, which ends up costing developing countries dearly. Those officials also pointed out that only 5 of the 20 richest countries in the world have devoted 0.7 per cent of their gross national product to development assistance, in accordance with the objectives set by the United Nations.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“However, in order to reduce as soon as possible the social cost of structural adjustment measures, we must resume the still-unfinished debate on North-South relations between rich and poor countries, between industrialized countries and those that do not have the means of paying their debts nor of relaunching their stricken economies. In this regard, we should, in the financial sphere, come up with a final solution to external debt problems that takes into account debtor countries' actual repayment abilities. This restructuring of external debt should be supplemented by the granting of substantial financial assistance, on concessional terms, as was the case with Eastern Europe.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The impact of such a situation on African countries has been catastrophic, since the recession in the industrialized countries has not only kept raw-materials prices at very low levels, but has also had the consequence of reducing the quantities exported, thereby causing a very substantial drop in the export earnings of African countries. Nevertheless, in spite of the unfavourable economic environment, African countries including my own. Cote d'Ivoire, in particular have courageously continued to pursue efforts undertaken as part of the structural adjustment process and drastic economic reform, with all that this entails in terms of the risk of social unrest. As regards my country, those measures have none the less allowed for the establishment of macro-economic balances, which means that we might achieve a 5 per cent growth rate by 1995.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)