UN General Assembly
1989

The initial steps taken towards real disarmament open up prospects of channelling resources released in this way to meeting the needs of social and economic development. The problem of converting military production to civilian use is now being addressed in practical terms. Conversion undoubtedly poses complicated problems, involving retooling and reorienting plants and re-employing and retraining personnel, and so on. It therefore seems all the more necessary to pool our efforts to solve those problems at all levels - national, regional and global - drawing upon the experience so far accumulated in this area. We have· every hope that the United Nations and its specialized agencies will conduct specific studies and make recommendations on individual aspects of the problem. It is essential, however, that the United Nations should be able to collect all information available and thus become a kind of centre for developing a global strategy on converting military production. Many conversion studies conducted both in the East end in the West have demonstrated that conversion not only is feasible but will also have positive social and economic effects.