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The United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

C. Habt Schaaf
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Extract

The bare facts about the history and organization of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) are not difficult to relate. The commission was established in 1947 by the Economic and Social Council, along with two other regional economic commissions for Europe and Latin America, as a five-year experiment. Its terms of reference authorized it “acting within the framework of the policies of the United Nations and subject to the general supervision of the Council” and provided that it take “no action in respect to any country without the agreement of the Government of that country” to:

(a) initiate and participate in measures for facilitating concerted action for the economic reconstruction of Asia and the Far East, for raising the level of economic activity … and for maintaining and strengthening the economic relations of these areas both among themselves and with other countries of the world;

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , November 1953 , pp. 463 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1953

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References

1 Comments made in the commission debate thus do not find their way into the current Survey, as it is printed before the debate begins.

2 For the complete list of current projects and related criteria and definitions, see Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, Annual Report … for the period February 1952 to February 1953Google Scholar (Economic and Social Council, Official Records (15th session), Supplement No. 6), paragraphs 191–211.

3 The projects involving cooperation with the specialized agencies are designated with “s” in ibid., paragraph 211.

4 A few of the best-known ECAFE studies, which have been printed, are the annual Economic Survey, the quarterly Economic Bulletin, Foreign Investment Laws and Regulations of the Countries of Asia and the Far East (1951), Fields of Economic Development Handicapped by Lack of Trained Personnel in Certain Countries of Asia and the Far East (1951), Coal and Iron Ore Resources of Asia and the Far East (1952), Mobilization of Domestic Capital in Certain Countries of Asia and the Far East (1951), and Mobilization of Domestic Capital: Report and Documents of the First Working Party of Experts (1951), and Second Working Party (1952).

5 The projects with United Nations Technical Assistance Administration implications are designated with “t” in ibid.

6 Annual Report of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (1951), Economic and Social Council, Official Records (13th session). Supplement No. 7, paragraph 341Google Scholar.

7 Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, Official Records (9th session) (document E/CN.11/363), p. 51Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., p. 90–91.

9 Ibid., p. 58.

10 Ibid., p. 81.

11 Members of the United Nations Secretariat, among whom the author of this article is proud to be included, stand in a peculiar relationship to basic controversy of this type. Secretariat members must be impartial; and they do not take part in the debate. But it is wholly appropriate for a member of the Secretariat to hold the conviction that a profound purpose of the United Nations is to provide forums where the great issues of political philosophy, objectives, and allegiance can be debated. He is entitled to hope that the elucidation of basic and dangerous differences can help resolve such differences, partly by increasing the understanding of what is involved, and spreading such understanding.

12 Annual Report of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (1951), Economic and Social Council, Official Records (13th session), Supplement No. 7, paragraph 339Google Scholar.