A/RES/52/187 Page 2 encouraging the international community to support these further reform efforts by the least developed countries, including helping to minimize any social cost of adjustments, Noting with concern the reduced flow of development resources to the least developed countries, the resulting need to accord them priority in the allocation of concessional resources and their continued marginalization in world trade, as well as the fact that many least developed countries face serious debt problems and more than half are considered debt-distressed, Taking note of the outcome of the Trade and Development Board at its forty-fourth session on the item relating to the annual review of progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action,4 including its agreed conclusions and its recommendation to the General Assembly to consider at its fifty-second session the convening of a third United Nations conference on the least developed countries, its preparatory process, and the designation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as the focal point for the preparation of the conference, 1. Decides: (a) To convene the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries at a high level in the year 2001. The mandate of the Conference will be the following: (i) To assess the results of the Programme of Action during the 1990s at the country level; (ii) To review the implementation of international support measures, particularly in the areas of official development assistance, debt, investment and trade; (iii) To consider the formulation and adoption of appropriate national and international policies and measures for sustainable development of the least developed countries and their progressive integration into the world economy; (b) To convene an intergovernmental preparatory committee in due time to prepare for the Conference. That meeting would be preceded by three expert-level preparatory meetings, two in Africa, one of which would include the Americas, and one in Asia and the Pacific. These preparatory activities should be carried out within the budget level proposed by the Secretary-General for the biennium 1998-1999; 2. Also decides that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development will be the focal point for the preparation of the Conference; 3. Requests the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to include in future issues of the annual report on the least developed countries substantive contributions to the Conference and its preparatory process; 4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-third session the sub-item entitled "Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s" and to consider, inter alia, the date, duration and venue of the Conference, its preparatory process and the funding for participation of representatives from each least developed country, both at the preparatory committee meeting and at the Conference itself, from extrabudgetary resources; 4 See A/52/15 (Part II), sect. II.C. For the final text, see Official Records of the General Assembly, Fiftysecond Session, Supplement No. 15. /...