Fourteenth Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77 and China

Honourable Chair,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to make the statement on behalf of the Secretary-General, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi. It is a great honour to be here today to address this esteemed crowd.

Traditionally, the G-77 ministerial meeting is a key, intrinsic element to the UNCTAD quadrennial Conference. It is the opportunity for the group to consolidate its position for the final phase of the substantive preparatory process. It is also the moment to look forward to how the group can organize itself to continue advancing trade and development issues, including through implementing the UNCTAD 14 outcome but with an also eye beyond to future UNCTAD conferences.

The ministerial meeting of the G-77 is a time to be pragmatic and result-oriented with respect to the current negotiations, but also keep a steady eye on unrealized objectives and unfulfilled aspirations, so that you continue to advance the shared agenda of all developing countries beyond this Conference.

This year, your task takes on added urgency. We meet here today with a renewed sense of purpose, hope and mission.

Purpose, because development is still a tall mountain to climb and far too many see no prospect of reaching its summit.

Hope, because in the past year, the international community agreed on the transformative and universal 2030 agenda. It includes an agenda for action on the financing for development process to put in place the enabling environment, at global, regional and national level, needed to realize the 17 SDGs.

Mission, because UNCTAD 14 is an opportunity to reinforce the importance of the quadrennial conference in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and in the international economic architecture. This is an opportunity to move from decisions to action. We must move beyond the rhetoric that all too often marks the outcomes of UN conferences, towards the concrete actions, which UNCTAD can support to deliver prosperity for all.

The solutions envisioned by the SDGs today explicitly recognize the integrated UNCTAD approach to trade and development. Trade, finance, technology and investment working together is now widely accepted as the path to sustainable development for all developing countries.

Much has changed since UNCTAD I and indeed since UNCTAD 4 was held in Nairobi. The East-West divide has ended. Prosperity has caught up with much of the world. Even the North-South divide has dimmed. Yet many problems remain. The global economy remains unbalanced. Prosperity for all remains more tangible in theory than practice. And dark clouds are on horizon with respect to the health of global economy.

This is where the importance of UNCTAD 14 lies.

And this is also why an ambitious and comprehensive new mandate for UNCTAD is not only important, but should also be entirely doable.

The most challenging negotiation already took place in the lead up to the SDG summit in New York. And with the FfD outcome at Addis Ababa we see unprecedented unanimity in finding a strong and central role for UNCTAD in implementing the 2030 Agenda. This is where we should focus our efforts.

With its integrated approach UNCTAD has an important role to play in the implementation of the entire holistic 2030 agenda. Yet there are some goals where UNCTAD plays a more direct role than others. In some areas UNCTAD is in a unique place to continue playing a lead.

One of them is in the area of statistics. We are encouraged that there is unanimity of this view and we need to ensure that UNCTAD's statistical capacity is strengthened and reinforced. And Secretary-General Kituyi strongly urges that capacity must be turned to the challenge of measuring South-South Cooperation, because if UNCTAD does not take on this work, there are other less inclusive, less universal bodies that will quickly monopolize this area of work.

Another key function is UNCTAD's analytical work. UNCTAD must continue playing its essential role improving global approaches and pushing the intellectual understanding of development. Just as the 2030 Agenda improved on the MDGs, we must continue to improve to reach the next generation of development.

Third, in our technical assistance, UNCTAD analysis translates directly concrete policy advice. These activities make a real difference for all countries that we serve.

Finally, as a subsidiary of the UN General Assembly and as a universal intergovernmental body in its own right, UNCTAD has tremendous potential in driving intergovernmental monitoring and implementation. Especially with developing countries, UNCTAD has an elevated role among UN entities, especially as one of the five major institutional stakeholders in the FfD follow-up process. This is due to the inclusiveness our intergovernmental machinery and the sometimes forgotten importance that it can have in the broader UN architecture.

We must revitalize this machinery. What we need is the political will to fully use what we have, as well as how to innovate with the tools and initiatives that have recently begun to bear fruit. And we must use it not only in UNCTAD but also to strengthen development country participation in the High-Level Political Forum and in the Group of 20 meetings, where UNCTAD's support to the intergovernmental process specifically advocates for developing countries who are not members of the G-20.

We must never forget that, at the root, UNCTAD was created for developing countries, by developing countries.

As we look to next four years of work of our TDB, and of the Secretariat's support to members, Secretary-General Kituyi pledges to continue working closely with the G-77 and China - our strongest supporters and our principal constituency. Working together, UNCTAD activities and tools can continue to contribute to generating useful ideas. The Geneva Dialogues, which Secretary-General Kituyi initiated, for example, yielded considerable intellectual fruit that can serve as useful food for thought in other bodies and negotiations.

Let us continue to broaden our frank and open discussion for the benefit of all UNCTAD members, going forward.

Thank you very much to all of you for your attention.