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INFORMAL NEGOTIATIONS:

The Plenary discussion on the work programme for the interim period concluded on Wednesday morning, 11 January 1995. On Friday evening, 13 January 1995, the Chair convened a small negotiating group consisting of the heads of regional and interest groups, to formulate a draft resolution on the work programme for the interim period. The first draft, which was prepared by the Chair on the basis of Friday evening"s discussion, was distributed to the small group on the following Monday afternoon. Two working groups were proposed, but OECD member countries were not entirely supportive of having one working group discussing financial matters and another addressing institutional matters. There was also discussion about whether the Secretariat should prepare documentation on scientific and technical cooperation. Members of the OECD group proposed, instead, that the Chair should make proposals to the Committee, at the seventh session, on the organization of scientific and technological cooperation. G-77 members did not think that this was the role of the Chair and proposed that the Secretariat should make these proposals.

A new draft was circulated to the regional groups on Tuesday morning. The small negotiating group reconvened in the afternoon and reached agreement on the mandates of the two working groups. With regard to the chairmanship of the working groups, the G-77 and China asked that one of its members chair the working group that would be dealing with financial matters. After some discussion, delegates agreed and decided to nominate Mourad Ahmia (Algeria) as the Chair of Working Group I and Takao Shibata (Japan) as the Chair of Working Group II. This, however, led to another problem. Since delegates agreed that each working group would have one Chair and two Vice Chairs (two from Africa and one from each of the other four UN regional groups), was Japan considered a member of the Asian Group in the INCD? Since Japan is geographically in Asia, but politically part of the OECD group, delegates decided that they would have three Vice Chairs in one working group to allow for two Africans, one from each of the other four regional groups and Japan.

With regard to the preparation of reports on scientific and technological cooperation, delegates agreed that the Secretariat, not the Chair, should be asked to prepare the relevant report. Delegates were not able to agree on the venue and timing of INCD meetings in 1996 and 1997.

On Wednesday morning, 18 January, the regional groups endorsed the draft resolution and on Wednesday afternoon, the Plenary adopted the resolution, as contained in document A/AC.241/L.24. [Return to start of article]