A/RES/58/108 A-B Noting that the Territory commemorated its annual British Virgin IslandsUnited States Virgin Islands Friendship Day on 31 May 2003 in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1. Requests the administering Power to continue to assist the territorial Government in achieving its political, economic and social goals; 2. Once again 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; 3. Calls for the inclusion of the Territory in regional programmes of the United Nations Development Programme, consistent with the participation of other Non-Self-Governing Territories; 4. Notes the economic difficulties being experienced by the territorial Government and the fiscal austerity measures being implemented, and others proposed, to relieve the Territory’s cash flow shortage, 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 once again 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, including its articulation in resolution 1609 of 9 April 2001 of the 24th Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands, 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-Self-Governing Territories, and its calls for the return of those marine resources to the people of the Territory; 7. Notes with concern that the 2000 census figures for the Territory indicate that 32.5 per cent of the population is living in poverty. 72nd plenary meeting 9 December 2003 _______________ 16 14 See A/CONF.189/12 and Corr.1, chap. I.