UNCTAD and the group that stands up for developing countries in the United Nations reaffirm a strong partnership built on a shared history.
The chair of the diplomatic group representing developing countries at the United Nations in Geneva was handed from Pakistan to Ecuador at a ceremony hosted by UNCTAD at the Palais des Nations on 14 January.
Ambassador Farukh Amil of Pakistan handed over the annually rotating chairmanship of the Group of 77 (G77 and China) to Ambassador Diego Aulestia Valencia of Ecuador in the presence of UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi and several other high-ranking UNCTAD officials.
Speakers at the event called for the voice of developing countries to be heard loud and clear as the multilateral trading system evolves under pressure from some developed countries, and conditions darken for the global economy.
“There's a growing interest in an a la carte approach to international trade – the selective use of rules and selective exclusion of obligations, and under that label, challenges to fairness in trade relations, technology transfer and the right to policy space,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.
“And these are all at the very core of the reasons why the G77 and UNCTAD were invented in 1964. In a very important way, things that we've been taking for granted have come under very severe challenge in the past year.”
Dr. Kituyi looked forward to not only “raising and realigning the G77 and China with the commitments of Agenda 2030, but also for it to remain a key and relevant player at a time when some are trying to reform the multilateral system”.
“The G77 and China should be restated as core partners in the discourse in the future of rulemaking on international trade.”
Dr. Kituyi said that the upcoming High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20-22 March 2019, would be a milestone opportunity to do this.
Further research
In accepting the chairmanship, Mr. Valencia urged UNCTAD to accept the challenges to developing countries posed by new technologies.
“We also recognize the importance of the studies examining financial dangers, for instance, illicit financial flows, the progressive growth of indebtedness and the pressing need to strengthen strategies which will lead to industrialization and structural change,” he said.
“Developing countries would like to see from UNCTAD public policies and proposals that respond to these concerns and that also place this organization as one of the fundamental pillars in order to comply, in an innovative fashion, with the goals set out in Agenda 2030,” Mr. Valencia added.
As well as acknowledging the group’s role in preparing for UNCTAD 15, the next ministerial conference renewing the organization’s mandate in 2020, Mr. Valencia requested further research into topics such as climate change and urbanization on the economies of developing countries.
“We have every trust in the skills, capacities and the commitment of all the people who make up the UNCTAD secretariat and, from the outset, I’d like to express our full readiness to work together to achieve this task.”
Mr. Valencia is a former international trade minister (2015-2016), and former housing minister (2013-2015) of Ecuador, as well as being the ambassador of Ecuador to Portugal (2012-2013) and representative for trade affairs to Europe (2013).
The G77 is the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries in the United Nations. It provides the means for the countries of the global South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests, enhance their joint negotiating positions on major international economic issues within the UN system and promote South-South cooperation for development.
The G77 was established in June 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva in parallel with the emergence of the UNCTAD secretariat. Although the membership of the G77 has increased to 134 countries since that meeting – subsequently known as UNCTAD I – and now includes China, the original name was retained for its historical significance.
