UN General Assembly
1988

One of the greatest challenges facing mankind as we approach the twenty-first century is the achievement of economic growth in developing countries. If that goal is to be realized, it is essential that developing and industrialized countries alike co-operate in recognition that the world economy is in fact a single entity. In order to expand systematically its official development assistance, Japan intends within a five-year target period to raise its share of total official development assistance disbursements made by the countries of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to a level commensurate with the size of its economy in relation to the economies of other countries of the Committee. Japan is therefore working to raise the level of its official development assistance to more than 350 billion over the next five-year period beginning in 1988, which is double the official development assistance it disbursed during the previous half decade. It is further trying steadily to increase the ratio of its official development assistance to its gross national product, and further to expand its grant assistance to least developed countries.