Trade and Development Board, 33rd special session: Presentation of the UNCTAD Secretary-General's Report to UNCTAD16
Thank you, Mr. President.
Your excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Dear friends,
Following our celebration of Viet Nam's generous offer to host UNCTAD16, it is my honor to formally present my report to the Conference.
As many of you know, we shared an extensive preview of this report through an infographic storyboard last December, and the full text was made available to all member States earlier this week.
Rather than revisiting the detailed content that we discussed last month, I would like to focus today on what I see as the key deliverables for UNCTAD16 and emphasize the path ahead of us.
The report proposes 16 concrete actions for UNCTAD16, structured around the four transformations of the Bridgetown Covenant. There are three actions per transformation and four cross cutting ones.
For more diversified economies, we propose:
Critical minerals
Positioning UNCTAD as global knowledge hub for critical energy transition minerals. This includes enabling the twin transitions to clean energy and a digital economy, while fostering structural change through value addition and domestic processing.
Services
Expanding our work on services as a new frontier of economic diversification through data collection, policy analysis, technical assistance and consensus building.
Digital technologies
Helping developing countries enhance their readiness to leverage data and digital technologies, and capacities for economic diversification and inclusive development.
For more sustainable, inclusive and resilient economies, we propose:
Industrial policy for inclusion and resilience
Elevating our support to developing countries in building resilience and broad-based prosperity through low-carbon structural transformation, enhanced productive capacities and increased economic complexity.
Enhanced development dimension of the triple planetary crisis
Advancing the discourse on the development dimension of climate and environment-related policies to foster international cooperation and climate finance, and help developing countries strengthen the economic and environmental sustainability of food systems and capture emerging business opportunities in the green, blue and circular economies.
Inclusive trade
Ensuring a better integration of developing countries into the global trading system, including African countries, least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS). Ensuring that trade offers opportunities for all, including vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and agricultural producers in all regions.
For more abundant and stable financing for development, we propose:
Investment and sustainable finance
Stepping up our support to member States to help them build a sustainable and innovative finance ecosystem and promoting investment flows towards developing countries at scale.
Debt and development
Supporting countries in their efforts to reform, through multiple fora, the global debt architecture, and assisting in debt management and crisis prevention and resolution, including through the Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS). Advocating for broader reforms around the Global Financial Safety Net and development finance to ensure new debt crises do not unfold in the future.
Domestic resources
Promoting open and equitable international tax cooperation, helping developing countries to develop data and policies to address the challenges of illicit financial flows in a comprehensive and inclusive manner, and improving their ability to reap their full customs revenue through programs such as the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA).
And for more multilateralism in a multipolar world, we propose:
International financial architecture (IFA)
Investing in consensus building for IFA reform to make it more inclusive and fairer, ensuring it meets the development and climate financing needs of developing countries affordably, at scale and with a long-term horizon. Stepping up our advocacy in relevant fora.
Multilateral trading system
Expanding support to developing countries in taking a leading role in reforming the multilateral trading system, helping them navigate tariff and non-tariff measures, trade-restrictive policies and conflicting standards.
Networked multilateralism
Enhancing our capacity to build consensus both within UNCTAD and beyond, including within the UN as well as other regional and South-South international bodies and frameworks, such as the Global System of Trade Preference among Developing Countries (GSTP), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and others.
Cross-cutting these transformations, we emphasize:
Crises, shocks and disruptions
Enhancing our capacity to assess the socio-economic impacts of global shocks, disruptions to global supply chains, and crises.
Global cooperation
Strengthening our support for North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation for sustainable and equitable development.
Data
Expanding data capabilities, harnessing the data revolution for evidence- based policymaking and the provision of new digital public goods.
Gender
Fostering a deeper understanding of the trade and women nexus and providing analysis, tools and data that support the implementation of inclusive policies.
The idea of these 16 actions for UNCTAD16 is to enhance our voice at the international level and UNCTAD's mandate to inspire the membership towards concrete, workable and ambitious results in our Conference.
However, there is something I want to emphasize here.
What matters most now is not what is written already in the report that is in your hands, but what is yet to be written. The ideas presented are meant to start a dialogue, not to conclude it.
Your excellencies,
The preparatory process for UNCTAD16 is now officially underway. We look forward to receiving the position papers from the regional groups and to engaging in constructive dialogue with all member States. My office and our entire team stand ready to support this process in any way we can.
Our goal is to make UNCTAD16 a landmark event that delivers concrete results for our member States.
This can only be achieved through genuine dialogue and strong consensus-building efforts. We are committed to working closely with all delegations to ensure that the Conference outcomes reflect our shared aspirations and address the real needs of developing countries.
I encourage all delegations to engage actively in this process. My door is always open for consultations and suggestions. Together, we can ensure that UNCTAD16 in Viet Nam becomes a turning point in our organization's history.
I thank you, Mr. President.