133. In the context of future efforts toward procurement PPPs, whether or not made in the course of negotiations on a reduction of military expenditures, it may be supposed that the Parties would be both able and willing to make the necessary efforts in order to reach satisfactory solutions, 134. As mentioned earlier, the Group’s questionnaire on the Category of construction did not prove adequate for its purpose of collecting appropriate information. The Group had therefore to use civilian COnStrUCtiOn price indexes for military’ construction submitted directly by participating States. It is, however, not likely that this has had more than a very minor impact On the aggregate results achieved by the Group , as the category of construction is rather small in most countries’ military expenditures and as no major differences in Unit costs should be expected to prevail between civilian and military construction. Some improvements might, however, be obtained if specific military construCtiOn price indexes were produced. 135. Concerning the category of research and development, the Group encountered several difficulties in its endeavours to specify appropriate items for which prices could be requested. In view of this, it chose to apply a simple method through which it used prices for a selected number of items within the Operating cost category on the assumption that those could fairly well be applied to similar input items in the research and development area. A more elaborate method might prove to yield better results but it is at present difficult to define such a method. A/40/421 English Page 54 136. From the standpoint of possible future negotiations on the reduction of military expenditures, the greatest improvement over the achievements Of the present exercise would, undoubtedly, be afforded by a more representative sample of participating States having diverse budgeting and aticounting systems. The present 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing the methodology and results of a study on the reduction of military expenditures, specifically in the context of procurement Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The language used is technical and focused on the details of budgeting and accounting systems, suggesting that the text is related to economic and financial matters. The mention of "military construction" and "research and development" also points towards a category that is more focused on economics and industry rather than natural resources or humanitarian aid.

**Category**
Industry, International trade