In most states with market oriented economic systems privatisation plays an important role in the political discussion, mainly due to the fundamental problem of all economic systems, which is scarcity of available resources. The responsible politicians try to improve the allocation of scarce...

The United Nations’ first development decade has not come up to expectations in Its results: neither did developing countries succeed in achieving a minimum growth rate of 5 p.c. of their GNP, nor did lndustriailsed nations use for aid the equivalent of I p.c. of their GNP. U Thant called this...

Indonesia has dropped out of the news lately. The country which during the Sukarno era constantly made the headlines of the world press because of the spectacular foreign political actions of its headstrong president is now bending its energies on economic consolidation.

The EC’s association and preference policy has again and again given rise to criticism by those developing countries who are not favoured as well as by the other industrial states. Sometimes, however, it seems that preferences have been overestimated. It cannot be overlooked that the...

In view of the urgency and size of the problem how to feed the world’s population, the framework given to the recent World Food Conference did not seem to be over-extended. The poor results, however, give again rise to the general question whether international mammoth meetings like the one in...

The emphasis of development policies has for many years been placed on primarily growth-oriented development strategies. Although the latter have indeed induced an astounding increase in real GNP levels in Third World countries, they have not been able to decisively reduce existing social...

Government intervention in developing countries has often been biased towards the support of urban industries and the urban population. The resulting distortions in exchange rates and in the prices of the factors of production have had serious detrimental effects on rural areas. A gradual...