UN General Assembly
1978

331. This new vision of development is based on two main beliefs. The first is that the so-called poor countries possess an enormous potential. Instead of yielding to a sense of powerlessness and dearth, Africa, Asia and Latin America should show their people the wealth of their soil, their manpower, and their energy and mineral resources. The second belief is that, instead of allowing the foreign exploitation of this wealth, the third world has enough imagination to develop it on its own on the basis of interdependence with the industrialized countries and not on the basis of servitude. 332. Having recovered their sense of self-confidence, the people of the third world can bring about genuine development, guided by a few key ideas which have become increasingly popular and which have been tried and tested: autonomy, on the one hand, and, on the other, the belief that man is the centre of initiative as well as of creation. 333. Without overlooking the need for co-operation, the need for autonomy gives to those who choose this option