UN General Assembly
1993

economic shock therapy that leaves it no chance of success. Unfortunately, the many initiatives that have been taken to promote our countries’ development have so far not had positive results, as most of them have been implemented only half-heartedly. This is particularly true of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s and the Paris Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s. In view of these considerations, my delegation would like to recall that it is for the international community to adopt steps designed to alleviate the debt burden. These steps should include, inter alia, writing off debt for developing countries or, failing that, reducing it substantially, making repayment conditions more flexible, and setting up and paying into a diversification fund to transform the commodities sector and stimulate economic growth in Africa. There should also be a call for a considerable increase in official development assistance. As the 1980s were a lost decade for Africa, during the 1990s the industrialized countries should agree to an increase