Economic and technical cooperation among developing countries, G.A. res. 48/172, 48 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No.49) at 152, U.N. Doc. A/48/49 (1993).


The General Assembly,

Reaffirming its resolutions 33/134 of 19 December 1978, in which it endorsed the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, and 46/159 of 19 December 1991, as well as other relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council resolution 1992/41 of 30 July 1992,

Stressing that technical cooperation among developing countries remains a key element in international cooperation, that it has a complementary role with respect to other forms of international technical cooperation and that its final purpose is to promote economic growth and development, in particular human resource development, utilizing the capacities of developing countries,

Reaffirming that, while developing countries have the primary responsibility for promoting and implementing technical cooperation among themselves, the United Nations system and developed countries should assist and support such activities, and that the United Nations system should continue to play a prominent role as promoter and catalyst of technical cooperation among developing countries, in accordance with the Buenos Aires Plan of Action,

Taking note with satisfaction of the statement in the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 46/159 that the organizations of the United Nations system had reported an increased emphasis on activities in technical cooperation among developing countries and that nearly all of the responding organizations had reported having adopted or being in the process of adopting policies to accelerate the use of the modality of such cooperation, and stressing the role of the operational activities segment of the Economic and Social Council in monitoring the use of this modality,

1. Endorses the report of the High-level Committee on the Review of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries on its eighth session, and the decisions adopted by the High-level Committee in annex I of its report;

2. Urges all Member States, in particular the developed countries among them, the United Nations Development Programme and other programmes and bodies whose work is related to that of the Economic and Social Council, as well as the specialized agencies, to give high priority and full support in their specific fields of operational activities to technical cooperation among developing countries, in the fields of, inter alia, science and technology, transfer of technology, capacity-building, education and technical training and know-how;

3. Requests all parties involved in the implementation of the strategy for the promotion and application of technical cooperation among developing countries in the 1990s, as referred to in the report of the High- level Committee, to ensure the widespread use of such cooperation;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fiftieth session on the implementation of technical cooperation among developing countries in the United Nations development system and on the follow-up to the present resolution.

86th plenary meeting
21 December 1993