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This paper highlights that despite unprecedented gains in living standards in some countries over the past few decades, poverty continues as a harsh reality in too much of the developing world. The causes lie in part with poor country governments that have not followed through on the policies and programs needed to accelerate growth and eradicate poverty. But they also reflect the uneven record of development assistance and protectionist trade policies and agricultural subsidies in industrial countries, which have dampened profitable investment and growth in the developing world.
This paper examines the importance of national planning for economic development of a country. The paper highlights that when World War II began, Soviet Russia was the only country engaged in systematic development planning, and then only since 1929, when its First Five-Year Plan was approved. At the end of the War, Asian countries that either had, or were about to, become independent, embraced planning to a much greater extent than countries in any other region.
This paper focuses on the Doha Development Agenda. The paper highlights that over the past 20 years, world trade has grown twice as fast as world real GDP, deepening economic integration and raising living standards. The paper underscores that the launch of a new trade round in Doha in November 2001 was a major breakthrough following the debacle in Seattle in 1999. The new round places the needs and interests of developing countries at the heart of its work, but a successful outcome for rich and poor nations alike is by no means a foregone conclusion.
Automated data processing is no panacea, but in well-organized customs and tax administrations it can expand capacity and improve efficiency
This paper analyzes the IMF’s Convention for Settlement of Investment Disputes. In March 1965, the Executive Directors of the IMF approved a Convention for submission to governments, together with a report commenting on the Convention’s principal features. The Convention establishes the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes as an autonomous international institution “to provide facilities for conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes.” It will “provide facilities,” because the Centre will not itself engage in conciliation or arbitration activities.