TNAG-0531-FCO40-626-Application-of-International-Labour-Convention-to-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 170

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

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obtain a general recognition of the fact that the economic and social factors of development are mutually interdependent and that it is the social policy which provides social purpose for the economic development.1

Needless to say, the conviction of the need of having social security in the national plan is not enough and must be accompanied by practical measures such as the setting up of special planning units, staffed by people with an expert knowledge of both planning techniques and of the social security field. In some countries the action to reach this objective must start from zero;

in others, some gocd beginnings have been made. The fact that some countries with social security schemes of long standing do not plan their extension within the framework of the national development plan does not mean that they have no social security planning It may only mean that no link has been established so far between the development planning procedures and those used in the social security sector. This is best shown in the example of India, where a recently established Committee on Perspective Planning recommended, among other things, that the Employees' State Insurance Corporation should adopt a five-year programme for the extension of benefits to additional categories of establishments. Clearly, the final step cf including the five-year plan of the ESIC in the national development plan of India cannot be far away.

at all.

The implementation of social security plans, once they are established and integrated in the national development plan, is likely to present less problems than implementation in other sectors. As we have pointed out in the introductory part of this paper, the idea of planning is at the very basis of all social security techniques and consequently more experience is available both at national and international levels in implementing social security measures than others.

It is obvious, however, that social security planning can only succeed if the national development plans meet with positive results. In this respect a certain amount of disillusionment was noticeable in the late 1960s as a result of many development plans falling short of expectations. This has been attributed by some to the # general lack of political support for planning, inadequate over-all development strategies, absence of effective co-ordination between policy and operational machinery".2 Other people believe that it is essentially implementation that determines the success of planning and that "more often that nct, developing countries have simply tried to Copy the fiscal and monetary institutions and instruments applied in developed countries rather than to design them from the beginning for the environment in which they are intended to work".3

very

It is to be hoped that the right lessons will be learned from the mistakes of the past and that the integrated approach to development planning will give new impetus to this effort of man to control the conditions of his existence. Nevertheless, as we pointed out in the beginning of this paper, planning is not a magic formula, the application of which may cure all the social evils of our time. It is an empirical, technical aid of government and its final result will depend cn the political will of those responsible for the destiny of the populations in the developing countries and on the support they will receive frcm their citizens. Their collaboration in this task will determine whether social progress will be achieved in a haphazard way in the situation of a permanent clash of conflicting social forces, or whether it will move on steadily towards rationally defined objectives.

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growth possible. Consequently, all available resources may be required for the social sector alone when the "critical level" can be reached within a reasonable length of time.

1 CE. S.N. Dubey: "Social Policy, Social Development and Weaker Sections India", in The Indian Journal of Social Work, No. 3, October 1973.

2 Economic Commission for Latin America: "Planning in Latin America" (1967)..

3 See "Economic Survey of Asia and the Far East, 1971", p. 17.

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