UN General Assembly
2003

vicious circle of poverty and lack of development. This situation is exacerbated by the huge external debts that the least developed countries are struggling to pay off. Given their economic problems, the least developed countries, of which 34 out of 49 are in Africa, there is need for support from the international community within the framework of the 2001 Brussels Plan of Action. In that vein, I wish also to urge developed countries to honour their pledges to meet the target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product offered as ODA to developing countries. While we welcome the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in addressing the external debt, there is a need to broaden and ease the process of accessing funds. Equally important, developing countries need easy access to the markets of the developed countries. This is important to stimulate economic growth. To level the playing field, my delegation calls for the removal of agricultural subsidies in developed countries, which have contributed to the adverse and poor terms of trade for the developing countries.