§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what is the view of Her Majesty's Government on the proposal by a panel of experts appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN to set up a new post of Director General for Development and Internation Cooperation to guide the whole United Nations economic system;
(2) what is the view of Her Majesty's Government on the proposal by a panel of experts set up by the Secretary-General of the UN that the weighted voting system in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund be changed to reflect the new balance of economic power and give developing countries a greater say;
(3) what is the view of Her Majesty's Government on the proposal to consolidate UN funds dealing with special issues such as population and environment—but excluding UNICEF—into a single development authority;
(4) what is the view of Her Majesty's Government on the proposal by a panel of experts appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN, that the World Bank borrow from OPEC countries at market rates and use the money for concessional loans to developing nations, with the difference made up by the OPEC countries and industrial countries jointly.
§ Mr. EnnalsThe report of the group of experts appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to examine the structure of the United Nations system makes a number of recommendations for changes in the system.
We welcome the report and are studying it closely. Our preliminary conclusion is that sections I and II of the report contain a coherent and generally sensible set of proposals for reforming the structure and functioning of the UN system. But much detail is inevitably 534W lacking and the implications of the proposals will need to be thoroughly worked out before definite conclusions on most of them can be reached.
On two of the points raised, I can say:
- (a) that the IMF Interim Committee agreed in January, in the context of the current IMF quota review, that the share of non-oil developing countries in the increased total should be maintained and that of the oil producers doubled; and
- (b) that Her Majesty's Government are supporting the efforts of the IBRD to establish an intermediate financing facility designed to increase concessional lending to the poorer developing countries.