Business and development : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly.

Business and development

Emphasizes the role of the private sector in each country, including international investors, to contribute positively to the implementation of national macroeconomic policies and macroeconomic stablization programmes; emphasizes the importance of a supportive international economic environment, including investment and trade, for the promotion of entrepreneurship and privatization; stresses the importance of micro-credit to people living in poverty, allowing them to establish micro-enterprises, which in turn generate self-employment and contribute to achieving empowerment particularly of women, and calls for the strengthening of institutions supportive of micro-financing, in particular, micro-credit; values the promotion of entrepreneurship, including through the informal sector and micro-enterprises, in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and industries by various actors throughout civil society and of privatization, demonopolization and the simplification of administrative procedures; encourages UNCTAD to continue to provide a forum for intergovernmental discussions concerning issues related to privatization, enterprise development and international flows of investment; stresses that the outsourcing of work from transnational corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises supports the development of entrepreneurship and privatization in developing countries; calls upon UN funds and programmes to continue to strengthen support to the promotion of entrepreneurship and to give due consideration to the role of the private sector in development, taking into account the priorities set by each country, while ensuring a gender perspective, and in this connection, states that there is a need to assist in particular the Governments of developing countries in strengthening their capacity to encourage wider participation of the private sectors.

Adopted without vote, 77th meeting

3 p.

Adopted at the 77th plenary meeting, 18 Dec. 1997.