CONFIDENTIAL
8
C/NM(90)22(1st Revision)
views on longer-term economic developments on the basis of global and regional scenarios. It would offer an opportunity to examine inconsistencies between individual national projections; to assess the relative significance of underlying social and economic trends; to evaluate the key driving forces and also the risk factors expected to be of crucial importance in the next decade; to heighten awareness of the major uncertainties and unsustainabilities facing decision-makers in government and industry in the years to come; and provide a common framework for thinking on longer-term evolutions. Depending on the final design of the meeting, one could also envisage laying some of the groundwork for the development of several coherent scenarios for the world economy in the year 2000.
This would, among other things, provide a useful reference frame for reviewing national projections in the light of more consistent assumptions about the future international environment.
26.
Cities
Protecting the Urban Environment, in Growing Cities
Cities, which are a principal engine of socio-economic growth in OECD countries, DAES and developing countries, are also almost invariably places where the degradation of environmental conditions is extreme. The situation is often aggravated by exorbitant population growth rates and by the high density concentration of residential structures, manufacturing activity, power plants in high density, mixed-use areas, in the absence of adequate, basic infrastructure (water supply, sewage, roads, waste disposal). At the same time, certain large cities exhibit some of the most advanced elements of post-industrial urbanisation and urban policies: such as innovative construction methods, high-tech telecommunication networks, transport systems; also traffic management experiences and the development of a new generation of new towns.
27. Over the years, there has been an increasing interest in exchanging urban management and urban policy experience between OECD Member countries and some of the DAES. This has been limited, so far, to episodical involvement of experts in specific OECD projects and/or meetings. The broadening of the dialogue with the DAES currently under way, and the new terms of reference contained in the new mandate of the OECD Group on Urban Affairs may offer an opportunity for an informal workshop in the area of urban environment.
Human Resource Development Policies
28. The purpose of the Informal Workshop would be to examine, and underline. the role of human resource development policies in improving economic performance while simultaneously ensuring social progress; and, in this connection, to confront the experience of OECD countries with that of the DAES.
29. The Informal Workshop would focus on how well educated and trained the general population and labour force are, and how well suited human resource development policies are to adapting to the changing skills and qualifications requirements that flow from the introduction of advanced technologies to the workplace, and changes in the structure and behaviour of firms and the organisation of work -- all of which are taking place against a background of structural changes in national and world markets.
CONFIDENTIAL