A/RES/52/209 Page 2 3. Emphasizes the role of the private sector in each country, including international investors, to contribute positively to the implementation of national macroeconomic policies and macroeconomic stabilization programmes; 4. Recognizes that business and industry, including transnational corporations, play a crucial role in the social and economic development of a country, that a stable policy regime enables and encourages business and industry to operate responsibly and efficiently and to implement longer-term policies and that the activities of business and industry are the primary contributors to increasing prosperity, which is a major goal of the development process; 5. Expresses the conviction that a stable and transparent environment for commercial transactions in all countries is essential for the mobilization of investment, finance, technology, skills and other important resources across national borders, in order to promote growth and development, and recognizes in this context that effective efforts at all levels to combat corruption and bribery are essential elements of an improved international business environment; 6. Recognizes the important role of Governments in creating, through transparent and participatory processes, an enabling environment supportive of entrepreneurship and facilitative of privatization, in particular in establishing the judicial, executive and legislative frameworks necessary for a market-based exchange of goods and services and for good management; 7. Emphasizes the importance of a supportive international economic environment, including investment and trade, for the promotion of entrepreneurship and privatization; 8. Recognizes the need to increase private sector involvement in the provision of infrastructure services, inter alia, through joint ventures between public and private entities, particularly in countries with economies in transition, while protecting essential services and safeguarding the environment; 9. Recognizes that in many countries the informal sector accounts for a significant part of all economic activity and is a particularly important source of income for women and that the progressive integration of the informal sector should be encouraged; 10. Stresses the importance of micro-credit to people living in poverty, allowing them to establish micro-enterprises, which in turn generate self-employment and contribute to achieving empowerment, particularly of women, and calls for the strengthening of institutions supportive of micro-financing, in particular, micro-credit; 11. Values the promotion of entrepreneurship, including through the informal sector and micro-enterprises, in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and industries by various actors throughout civil society and of privatization, demonopolization and the simplification of administrative procedures; 12. Recognizes the important role of cooperatives in the development and promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises; 13. Encourages the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to continue to provide a forum for intergovernmental discussions, with the participation of representatives from the private sector, concerning issues related to privatization, enterprise development and international flows of investment, and welcomes the efforts by the Secretary-General of the Conference to build a lasting partnership for development with non-governmental actors, including through the "Partners for Development" initiative to be held at Lyon, France, in 1998; 14. Invites the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the other relevant United Nations bodies to further strengthen their activities, in particular for Africa and the least developed countries, /...