Cairo - The United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) on Tuesday called for an increase in development
assistance to poor countries of at least 50 billion US dollars
annually.
In a briefing in Cairo ahead of UNCTAD's 2008 trade and
development report, officials said an increase in assistance is
important for raising production capacities and achieving the UN's
Millennium Development Goals, which are focused on halving poverty
worldwide by 2015.
The report is to be formally released on Thursday in Geneva and
presents an outlook for the world economy and the economic prospects
for developing countries in view of the situation in international
financial, currency and commodity markets.
The report calls for a fresh approach to development financing
that focuses less on the mobilization of savings and more on direct
stimulation of investment.
Development assistance would be more beneficial if organizations
directed aid into local investments, officials said in outlining the
report.
'Egypt is committed to backing up the UNCTAD in its mission for
helping the developing countries to be a part of the world economy,'
Souad Shalaby, Egypt's assistant foreign minister, told reporters
Tuesday at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Among the 49 nations designated by the UN as 'least developed
countries,' 33 are in Africa and 10 in Asia.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was
established in 1964 and promotes the development-friendly integration
of developing countries into the world economy.
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