'Tremors of world financial crisis felt by assembly.'.

• Position: General Assembly 53 - United Nations General Assembly

The ongoing world financial crisis was a central focus of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this year. International financial issues were featured in 8 of the 32 draft resolutions the Committee recommended to the General Assembly.

Beginning its session on 6 October with one week of general debate, the Committee discussed a number of economic and financial issues, including macroeconomic policy, sectoral policy, sustainable development, environment, poverty elimination and Palestinian sovereignty over natural resources. On 15 December, the Assembly adopted by consensus all but one of the draft resolutions recommended by the Committee.

Committee Chairman Bagher Asadi of Iran attributed the success of the session to the fact that the Committee had "worked tirelessly to achieve consensus" on the elements of its programme of work, rather than settle for voting on issues. Particularly during the debate on globalization, the Committee was able to come to the conclusion that "all were in the same boat".

Macroeconomic policy

Seven resolutions were adopted by the Assembly on macroeconomic policy questions, including development in the context of globalization and interdependence, international trade and development, and external debt problem of developing countries.

Assessments of the impact of the global crisis triggered lively debate on a number of macroeconomic policy questions, particularly concerning the role of the United Nations in addressing them. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai said Committee discussions about a new financial architecture came at a time of a crisis of greater magnitude than any of a similar nature over the previous 50 years. A number of Committee members addressed the threat of unregulated flows of private investment capital, which was destabilizing the economic systems of developing countries and risking the marginalization of national economies.

Debate centred on whether to simply strengthen the Bretton Woods institutions or completely restructure the financial architecture.

The outcome of the debate was a resolution on growth and development and the impact of the financial crisis, by which the Assembly invited the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to consider the possibility of establishing a regulatory framework for short-term capital flows and trade in currencies. It also stressed the need to endow IMF with adequate resources to provide emergency financing to countries...