UN General Assembly
1981

23. The ability of smaller countries to carry out their well-meaning policies and programs is circumscribed by their capacity to tackle the pressing economic and social issues of the day. The plight of less developed countries, which share similar problems and conditions, has long been on the world agenda. Indeed, approximately 80 per cent of the entire budget of the United Nations system is devoted to tasks of economic and social development. However, there are more than 800 million people still living in abject poverty on this planet, and the irony is that, by the end of the Third United Nations Development Decade, their number will have increased to over a billion. 24. At the same time, annual world expenditure on weapons has risen to $500 billion and is showing no signs of abating. In this connection, my delegation hopes that the second special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament, to be convened in June next year, will succeed in reaching some of its goals.