A/RES/53/175 Page 4 rehabilitation efforts, also welcomes the proposals to discuss at the Paris Club meeting, to be held on 7 December 1998, further debt relief for the concerned countries, and calls upon the international financial institutions to help those countries in their reconstruction efforts, inter alia, by lessening the debt-service burden and considering appropriate additional measures and undertaking the early consideration of Honduras and Nicaragua for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative; 9. Stresses the importance for developing countries of continuing their efforts to promote a favourable environment for attracting foreign investment, thereby promoting economic growth and sustainable development, so as to favour their exit from debt and debt-servicing problems, and also stresses the need for the international community to promote a conducive external environment through, inter alia, improved market access, stabilization of exchange rates, effective stewardship of international interest rates, increased resource flows, access to international financial markets, flow of financial resources and improved access to technology for the developing countries; 10. Also stresses that the evolving debt strategy must be accompanied by a favourable and supportive international economic environment, including the full implementation of the results of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, and the Marrakesh ministerial decisions in favour of the least developed countries and the net food-importing developing countries;4 11. Further stresses the need for existing facilities to provide debt-relief measures through various debt conversion programmes, where possible, such as debt-equity swaps, debt-for-nature swaps, debt-forchild development swaps and other debt-for-development swaps, to be widely implemented so that the countries concerned may be assisted in their development efforts, as well as to support measures in favour of the most vulnerable segments of the societies of those countries and to develop techniques of debt conversion applied to social development programmes and projects, in conformity with the priorities of the World Summit for Social Development, held at Copenhagen in March 1995;5 12. Recognizes the need for attaching higher priority to social aspects in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative; 13. Welcomes the progress made in the implementation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative and the extension by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund of the original two-year period for countries to begin qualifying for assistance until the end of the year 2000, and stresses that the Initiative offers an important opportunity for the heavily indebted poor countries to reach a sustainable external debt position; 14. Calls for the speedy and determined extension of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative to more countries, and encourages all eligible countries to take policy measures needed to embark on the process as soon as possible so that all can be in process by the year 2000; 4 See Legal Instruments Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, done at Marrakesh on 15 April 1994 (GATT secretariat publication, Sales No. GATT/1994–7). 5 See Report of the World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, 6–12 March 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.8). /...