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occupation with materials and equipment required for industrial, installations, agriculture, transport, public works and utilities of an essential character. 10. Believing that the best possible conditions for a rise in the standard of living and the maintenance of full employment in the world can only be obtained by mutually consistent national economic, financial and social policies and by co-ordination of the activities of the different international institutions in this field, The Conference considers that appropriate international measures should be taken which guarantee sufficient contact and consultation with regard to such policies between Governments as well as between the different international institutions. 11. National Policy 11. In order that full employment at productive peacetime pursuits, freedom from want, rising standards of living and genuine economic security may be achieved with a minimum of delay after the war, The Conference urges that Governments and employers' and workers' organizations formulate comprehensive and co-ordinated programmes, suited to the particular needs of their countries, for prompt and orderly reconversion, reconstruction and economic expansion, and that such programmes be prepared and applied simultaneously with the consideration of the international measures referred to in the preceding paragraphs. 12. Recognizing that the economic situation will differ markedly among the various countries at the war's end, varying particularly with the degree and type of industrial development, the extent to which the peacetime economy has been disrupted by the war, and whether the country's territory has been occupied by the enemy; and recognizing that national post-war economic programmes must vary accordingly, in order to meet most effectively the needs of the country in which they are to be applied, The Conference urges that, with due allowance for difference in national economic situations, programmes for economic reconversion, reconstruction and expansion include the development of sound policies and procedures to provide— (a) Effective arrangements for the orderly and expeditious demobilization and repatriation, and for the early absorption in productive peacetime employment, of members of the' armed forces, civilian workers, prisoners, persons who have resisted deportation, deported persons and refugees; the prompt termination of contracts and settlement of claims ; the prompt determination of policy on the peacetime use of Government-owned war production capacity and equipment and the disposition of surplus materials, with a view to the use of these items to satisfy human needs ; and liberal provision for the maintenance, educational training and retraining of persons unavoidably out of employment; as recommended by the Twenty-sixth Session of the International Labour Conference in its recommendation concerning employment organization in the transition from war to peace ; (b) Retention, as long as shortages exist, of such war-created economic controls —for example, price and exchange controls and rationing—as are necessary to prevent inflation, and the relaxation of such controls as rapidly thereafter as is consistent with the public welfare ; (c) Adjustment of tax systems to encourage rapid reconversion, reconstruction and economic expansion, while maintaining an equitable distribution of tax burdens and avoiding financial measures which tend to increase the dangers of inflation or deflation ; (d Development of effective mechanisms for adequate financing of the reconversion, reconstruction and expansion of industry, trade, commerce and agriculture, and particularly to assist the establishment of new and efficient enterprises. 13. The Conference urges that all practicable measures be taken to maintain a high and steady level of employment, to minimize fluctuations in business activity, and to assure a steadily expanding volume of production, more particularly by means of— (a) Fiscal, monetary and other measures, including useful public works, to sustain the volume of demand for goods and services at a high level, while avoiding the dangers of an inflationary spiral of prices and wages ; in this connection attention should be paid, among other measures, to such methods as an adequate income security system, and to properly timed public works financed by borrowing in periods of depression, in accordance with the Public Works (National Planning) Recommendation, 1937 ; (b) Measures to discourage monopolistic practices and to encourage technological progress, to maintain a reasonably flexible system of prices and wages, to encourage the transfer of workers and productive resources from declining to expanding industries, and to attain a high degree of mobility of resources and freedom of access to alternative employment; (c) Measures to provide adequate incentives to engage in and expand constructive economic activity, to encourage private investment and to maintain the rate of investment; among the measures which warrant careful consideration in this connection are the adjustment of tax systems, removal of artificial barriers limiting access to resources and markets, the relaxation of unreasonable restrictions imposed by governmental agencies or by business or by labour organizations, and the maintenance of a high and stable demand for goods ; (id) Measures to provide adequate opportunity for workers to engage in productive activity and to obtain advancement; among the measures which warrant careful consideration in this connection are the provision of improved and more generally accessible educational and training facilities, provision of higher nutritional and health standards, fmprovement of public employment services, increased provision against economic insecurity, the maintenance of wages at a high level, and the protection, extension and improvement of collective bargaining procedures.

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