A/RES/56/72
4.
Calls upon the administering Power and the territorial Government to
continue to cooperate in order to counter problems related to money-laundering,
smuggling of funds and other related crimes, as well as drug trafficking;
5.
Welcomes the assessment by the Caribbean Development Bank in its
1999 report that the economy continued to expand with considerable output and low
inflation;
6.
Also welcomes the first Country Cooperation Framework approved by the
United Nations Development Programme for the period 1998–2002, which should,
inter alia, assist in the development of a national integrated development plan that
will put into place procedures for determining the national development priorities
over ten years, with the focus of attention on health, population, education, tourism
and economic and social development;
7.
Takes note of the statement made by the elected Chief Minister in May
2000 that the Territory is in the process of developing diversified resource
mobilization strategies, including joint ventures with the private sector, and that
external assistance would be welcomed as part of that process;
XI. United States Virgin Islands
Taking note with interest of the statements made and the information provided
by the representative of the Governor of the United States Virgin Islands to the
Caribbean regional seminar, held at Havana from 23 to 25 May 2001, 14
Noting that although 80.4 per cent of the 27.5 per cent of the electorate that
voted in the referendum on the political status of the Territory held on 11 October
1993 supported the existing territorial status arrangements with the administering
Power, the law required the participation of 50 per cent of the registered voters for
the results to be declared legally binding and therefore the status was left undecided,
Noting also the continuing interest of the territorial Government in seeking
associate membership in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and observer
status in the Caribbean Community and the Association of Caribbean States,
Noting further the necessity of further diversifying the economy of the
Territory,
Noting the efforts of the Government of the Territory to promote the Territory
as an offshore financial services centre,
Noting with satisfaction the interest of the Territory in joining the United
Nations International Drug Control Programme as a full participant,
Recalling the dispatch in 1977 of a United Nations visiting mission to the
Territory,
Noting that the Territory commemorated its annual British Virgin
Islands-United States Virgin Islands Friendship Day on 27 May 2000 in official
ceremonies on Tortola,
1.
Requests the administering Power, bearing in mind the views of the
people of the Territory ascertained through a democratic process, to keep the
_______________
14
A/56/23 (Part I), chap. II, annex, para. 37. For the final text, see Official Records of the General
Assembly, Fifty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 23.
14