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FINANCIAL RESOURCES

Discussion on where to begin the negotiations on financial resources began yesterday afternoon. The Chair, Amb. Rubens Ricupero of Brazil, presented a draft paper for consideration. The paper contains the following points: special efforts must be made to meet the full incremental costs for developing countries; economic conditions for free trade are essential; developed countries should "reaffirm" commitments to reach 0.7 percent of GNP for ODA (with no mention of a target date); mechanisms and sources of funds should include multilateral development banks and such funds as the IDA replenishment; multilateral institutions for capacity building and technical cooperation; strengthening of bilateral assistance programmes; debt relief; private funding and private investment; innovative financing; a transparent and accountable GEF; funding for incremental costs of Agenda 21 activities; and, review and monitoring of Agenda 21 financing.

The initial reaction of certain Northern delegates to the paper has been quite favorable. They welcomed it as an encouraging development in light of the protracted debate over which text should serve as the basis of discussions, and expressed hope that other countries would agree. It is believed that if the document is accepted by the G-77 (who met Thursday afternoon to formulate its position), several days of negotiations could easily be saved. Whereas a return to the G-77 text (L.41/Rev.1) could prevent a successful resolution of the financial resources issues.