UN General Assembly
1979

215. We had a golden opportunity to realize these structural changes at the fifth session of UNCTAD at Manila earlier this year. However, we failed. The results of the fifth session of UNCTAD proved to be a profound disappointment to developing countries. We ad another chance at the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development, held at Vienna in August this year. There again, we achieved very little. While the results of the Conference were at best satisfactory, they were nevertheless not positively conclusive for the developing countries. The same situation is also applicable to the other negotiating process featured under the North-South dialogue. The Committee of the Whole Established under General Assembly Resolution 32/174, following the General Assembly's agreement on its mandate last year, has begun work, but its movement forward has been painfully slow. Similarly, the Preparatory Committee for the New International Development Strategy for the 1980s has progressed very little, if at all, in its work. We all know the reason for this inertia, despite the international community's acceptance of the concept of the interdependency of nations and global economic cooperation.