Theory of Equal Partnership, a bourgeois economic conception which tries to resolve the problems of the accelerated development and modernisation of the economies of the developing countries on a capitalist basis. It is embodied in the policy of neo-colonialism. The theory was expounded in 1969 in the "Pearson Committee" report for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which summarised the consequences of relations between the Western powers and the developing countries during preceding decades. The conception admits that the existing structure of the international capitalist division of labour (see Division of Labour, Capitalist International), in which the role of the developing countries is confined to supplying raw materials and foodstuffs, is obsolete, and concludes that the time is ripe for the global redistribution of certain industries, with some of them, initially the primary processing of agricultural raw materials and crude minerals and then metal processing and textile and even the electronics and atomic industries, being moved to the developing countries. The architects of the theory believe that this redistribution will result in the economies of developed and developing countries eventually complementing each other on the basis of "equal partnership" and, ultimately, their integration within the framework of a "world community”, which is taken to mean the world capitalist system. The emphasis is placed on the development of trade and greater foreign investment, and on the theoretical justification for the multinational monopolies’ penetrating the manufacturing industries of the developing countries. These countries should increase their own efforts in the development of their economies, with “aid” playing an auxiliary role. As a result of this strategy, the developing countries will succeed in building some industrial enterprises, but will be only of secondary importance in world industrial production; the economies of these countries will remain on the whole underdeveloped. The theory of equal partnership has its origins in the deepening crisis of the world capitalist economic system, in particular, the crisis of relations between the imperialist and the developing countries. It reflects the attempt by imperialism to adapt to a new situation. The ultimate goal of this conception and the ensuing strategy is to strengthen imperialism’s grip on the developing countries.