UN General Assembly
1965

18. I now come to the economic conditions in Afro-Asian countries in general. Because of huge populations, high birth-rates, illiteracy and grinding poverty, in addition to political instability, this area faces many problems. Our region is for the most part composed of primary producing countries whose exports to the more advanced and industrialized nations are fetching less and less in terms of real value. The same is true of Africa, as mentioned by the representative of Ghana [1346th meeting]. The result is that these countries have to export much more of their primary products now if they wish to import the same quality of capital goods as they did only a few years ago. This point has been echoed and re-echoed several times already at this session by my fellow Afro-Asian representatives as well as at the Rome Conference only recently. It is a real cause of hardship and grievance to many under-developed countries which have made real and sincere efforts to advance themselves and their peoples. So far, nothing appears to have been done by way of redress.