21st Annual General Meeting of the Intergovernmental

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear participants,

We are proud to once again host this important gathering and continue our long-standing collaboration and partnership with the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development.

A warm welcome to the twenty first annual general meeting!

We are meeting at a time when the digital and energy transition are accelerating and demand for critical minerals is soaring. These minerals are now strategic assets shaping the future of energy and technological competitiveness.

Yet, as the world races to secure these resources, many producing countries remain trapped in a pattern of exporting raw materials, with little value added locally.

Over two-thirds of developing countries, and over eighty per cent of least developed countries, are still commodity-dependent, meaning that raw materials account for more than sixty per cent of their export revenues.

In many mineral-rich nations, more than seventy per cent of exports are unprocessed.

Moreover, value chains are highly concentrated, especially in refining and in the production of final goods like batteries.

This concentration creates systemic vulnerabilities, where disruptions in one link can ripple across the global economy.

The current patterns are not sustainable, neither equitable nor resilient.

Today’s topic “creating value beyond extraction” means rethinking how we approach mining – shifting toward more local value addition and broader economic diversification in producing countries.

By supporting producing countries to move up the value chain and diversify into goods and services that power the digital and energy transitions, we can build a more distributed, stable, and resilient global supply system.

UNCTAD is fully committed to supporting the transformation.

Our approach is rooted in the understanding that processing critical minerals is not simply an extension of mining; it is a fundamentally different industrial activity, often rooted in advanced chemical engineering and materials science.

This means that value addition and diversification strategies must be grounded in a detailed analysis of backward, forward, and lateral linkages across sectors.

UNCTAD supports countries in this area of work through various means:

For example, we co-chair together with UNEP and UNDP the newly established UN Task Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals. We lead work on two technical clusters: The first is on value addition, benefit sharing and diversification, and the second on traceability, transparency and global markets.

We are also supporting countries on the ground in identifying diversification pathways within and beyond the mineral value chain. We are currently supporting several countries in Southern Africa thanks to the generous support from the government of Japan.

Excellencies,

Our member States have embedded this crucial area of work in our new mandate - the Geneva Consensus - adopted ten days ago at our sixteenth ministerial conference. The message is clear: critical minerals should power not just the global energy and digital transitions, but also sustainable development in mineral rich countries.

UNCTAD stands ready to move this work forward together with your expertise and cooperation.

By bringing together policymakers, and representatives from industry, civil society, and international organizations, this forum has the knowledge and power to advance sustainable and responsible mining practices.

Together we can contribute that the energy transition is not a new form of dependency, but a true catalyst for transformation.

I wish you a productive and inspiring meeting.

Thank you.