PM Transcripts

FOR MEDIA SUNDAY, 9 DECEMBER 1979
PROFESSOR ARNDT TO CHAIR
COMMONWEALTH GROUP OF EXPERTS
The Prime Minister announced today that a distinguished academic
economist from the Australian National University,
Professor H. W. Arndt, is to chair a Commonwealth group of
experts to make a comprehensive study of factors restraining
growth within world economies.
The Prime Minister recalled that Commonwealth Heads of Government
at their recent meeting in Lusaka had recognised that a
continuation of slow growth in the global economy would further
damage the prospects of increasing living standards in both
developed and developing countries, and could have adverse
effects . on their political and social structures. They had
agreed to an Australian proposal that there would be considerable
advantage in a study by independent Commonwealth experts that
focusses on the constraints on economic growth and structural
change in developed and developing nations, and identifies
specific measures necessary to reduce these constraints. The
Group which will comprise about 10 independent Commonwealth
experts is to report in time to assist Commonwealth gove rnments
in their preparation for the Special Session of the United
Nations General Assembly in 1980.
In welcoming Professor Arndt's appointment as Chairman of this
Group the Prime Minister said that Professor Arndt, who is
currently Professor of Economics in the Research School of
Pacific Studies at the A. N. U. and formerly Dean of the
Faculty of Economics, has been an adviser to many international
bodies and has-written widely on economic matters.
Th. e earlier part of Professor Arndt's career had been devoted
to a study of macro-economics. In the last fif teen years he
has been concerned with the problems of economic development,
particularly in Indonesia, and with the linkage of the problems
of developed and developing countries.
Professor Arndt's most recent publication is The Rise and Fall of
Economic Growth: A Study in Contemporary Thought. In the
early 1960' s Professor Arndt conducted a study on the economic
growth in Europe for the United Nations and in the early
1970' s he contributed to the first OECD economic survey
of Australia. -00