UN General Assembly
1967

71. We are also greatly interested in any co-operation we may receive from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Unlike many small countries, whose principal resource is agricultural production, Gabon has great wealth beneath its soil, and hence we have an industrial future; and as everyone knows, the creation of a modern industrial sector is the surest means of promoting a dynamic economy and providing the people with the benefits of the industrial society of today. 72. For the moment, Gabon is in the unstable and perilous position of a country with a primary economy, which has to sell the raw materials it produces on the world market. Since the first UNCTAD Conference held at Geneva in 1964, we have hoped for great things from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in the way of concrete and rapidly applicable solutions calculated to offset a deterioration in our terms of trade which seriously harms us and is undoubtedly the most powerful obstacle to our economy and our progress in general.