A/RES/57/138 A-B Noting further the efforts of the Government of the Territory to promote the Territory as an offshore financial services centre, Recalling the dispatch in 1977 of a United Nations visiting mission to the Territory, Noting that the Territory commemorated its annual British Virgin IslandsUnited States Virgin Islands Friendship Day on 11 May 2002 in official ceremonies on St. Thomas, 1. Requests the administering Power, bearing in mind the views of the people of the Territory ascertained through a democratic process, to keep the Secretary-General informed of the wishes and aspirations of the people regarding their future political status; 2. Also requests the administering Power to continue to assist the territorial Government in achieving its political, economic and social goals; 3. Further requests the administering Power to facilitate the participation of the Territory, as appropriate, in various organizations, in particular the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Community and the Association of Caribbean States; 4. Notes with satisfaction that continuing measures being taken by the elected territorial Government have eased the fiscal crisis, and calls upon the administering Power to continue to provide every assistance required by the Territory to further alleviate the difficult economic situation, including, inter alia, the provision of debt relief and loans; 5. Notes with interest the entering into force in 2001 of the joint memorandum of cooperation on the exchange of artefacts between the Territory and Denmark, the Territory’s former administering Power, as a companion agreement to the 1999 memorandum for the repatriation of archival material from the Danish colonial period, consistent with the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance on 8 September 2001, 16 and requests the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, under its records and archives management programme, to assist the Territory in carrying out its archival and artefacts initiative; 6. Notes the position of the territorial Government opposing the assumption by the administering Power of submerged land in territorial waters, having regard to relevant resolutions of the General Assembly on the ownership and control of natural resources, including marine resources, by the people of the Non-SelfGoverning Territories, and its calls for the return of those marine resources to the people of the Territory; 7. Notes with concern that the last census figures for the Territory indicate that 32.5 per cent of the population is living in poverty, and that 47 per cent of children on St. Croix and 33 per cent of children on St. Thomas live in poverty. 73rd plenary meeting 11 December 2002 _______________ 16 See A/CONF.189/12 and Corr.1, chap. I. 17