Report of the Investment, Enterprise and Development Commission on its second session

The Commission

1. Welcomes the World Investment Report 2009: Transnational Corporations, Agricultural Production and Development, which provides detailed analysis, inter alia, on the issue of investment in agriculture in developing countries.
    
2. Notes that enhancing administrative efficiency is an important element for business facilitation, as well as for building the necessary infrastructure to achieve the internationally agreed development goals (IADGs), including through public and private investment.
    
3. Requests UNCTAD to continue its capacity-building activities to support developing countries in the development of iPortals.
    
4. Recognizes the relevance of administrative efficiency in facilitating business, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Stresses the need for transparency which contributes to the fight against corruption. Notes that UNCTAD’s support in building the technical and managerial capabilities of SMEs through its Empretec programme plays an important role in instilling entrepreneurial skills that enables some SMEs to participate in global value chains, and welcomes the expansion of Empretec to other developing countries, especially the least developed countries (LDCs). Appreciates UNCTAD’s efforts to support the diffusion of entrepreneurship.
    
5. Expresses its concern about the impact of the food, financial and economic crises on sustainable development and the uneven progress towards achievement of some of the IADGs, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Stresses the importance of investment in agriculture to ensure food security and sustainable development, emphasizing the need for promoting an enabling and predictable environment conducive to direct investment in agriculture.
    
6. Recognizes that investment in agriculture can contribute to building capacity and to progress towards achievement of some of the IADGs, including some of the MDGs.
    
7. Requests the UNCTAD secretariat, further to the deliberations of the Trade and Development Board at its fifty-sixth session, and in line with General Assembly resolution 64/192, in cooperation with other relevant institutions, to continue its work on the Principles for Responsible International Investment in Agriculture for Sustainable Development, emphasizing the need for a transparent and inclusive process for developing and considering such principles, which would allow ample input from Governments and all relevant stakeholders.
    
8. Underscores the importance to developing countries of enhancing productive capacities in agriculture and economic diversification, and in this regard requests UNCTAD, within its mandate and within existing resources, to reinforce its assistance to developing countries, particularly the LDCs, including in the areas of investment and technology.
    
9. Calls upon the UNCTAD secretariat to actively pursue the mandate on investment-related issues given by the Accra Accord so as to help developing countries, in particular LDCs, to build productive capacity in agriculture and to achieve sustained growth and development in order to, inter alia, make greater progress towards accomplishment of the IADGs.