I think the developing world would also like a greater degree of continuity in regard to international economic policy. Resolutions like the U.N. Resolution for one per cent of GNP as aid are of little use if individual donor countries can make far-reaching changes in their aid policies from year to year and without any notice. This question of continuity over time is often more important than the level of capital transfers. How exactly this is to be ensured is the kind of question which this Seminar may well address itself to. But even in areas other than foreign aid the question of some continuity in policy is of vital importance. Is it really fair, for example. that even the developing countries should not be excluded from the scope of restrictive trade policies however justifiable they may be in relation to other developed countries? Is is fair, for example, that the policy towards the import of cotton textiles and other labour intensive products should be the most restrictive and subject to sudden changes in import duties, quotas and the like which are seldom applied to other products? It is for these reasons that developing countries have been advocating at the UNCTAD and at other forums for some rules and conventions which would impart a greater degree of continuity or stability in policies that affect them widely. It is not enough to talk generally of the need for debt-relief. Conventions must be laid down whereby this happens automatically in an appropriate amount. It is not enough to talk of a General Scheme of Preferences. It has to be concretised at least in its essential features, so that there is an obligation on the part of all developed countries to observe certain minimum conventions. I am well aware that there is such a thing as national sovereignty. But unless we find some way of getting around the absolute sovereignty of nation states in an equitable manner, there is little prospect of creating a genuine world partnership.
There is one area where the quest for a genuine world partnership has hardly even begun. I am referring to the whole question of the transfer of technology from the developed to the develop-ling countries. Somehow, technical assistance so far has been interpreted in a somewhat narrow context, particularly when it relates to industrial technology or technology in relation to the development of power. transport and other basic facilities. It seems to be taken for granted that whereas the technology for agriculture or family planning should b: transferred freely from one country to the other, the technology for industry, transport, mining and the like is the preserve of private business which can be transferred only on the basis of commercial collaboration with such business. Collaboration with private foreign business has certainly a role to play. But I cannot help feeling that on this basis alone the transfer of technology to the developing world would be so slow and expensive as to be of little avail in satisfying the legitimate aspirations of the people. 1 have no ready-made solutions to offer in this area. But I think the time has come when our international agencies like the UNDP and the World Bank will have to show greater imagination and boldness in chalking out new paths for the transfer of technology to the developing world.
