[Video message]
Excellencies,
Dear Ambassadors,
Colleagues, friends,
Welcome to the 78th executive session of the Trade and Development Board (TDB).
I wish I could be with you in person – this room has always felt like home.
As I said in the Working Party, we are only one month into 2026, and the year has not started – it has exploded.
The year 2026 will demand of this institution more than 2025 already did.
You can be sure – UNCTAD will meet the challenge
Which brings me to this TDB session, which covers very important items before you.
Let me highlight a few:
First, the Trade and Development Report 2026.
“On the brink” examines an unexplored, fundamental side of our global economy: the link between trade and finance.
Some 90% of trade is financialized.
Behind every supply chain is a chain of balance sheets, currencies, payment systems.
The report maps how this nexus amplifies shocks while concentrating economic leverage, and how integrated policy frameworks can build resilience.
Second, the Least Developed Countries Report 2025, which we will launch on 10 February.
Services now generate two thirds of global jobs.
But for LDCs, the link between services and structural transformation is complex.
The report is honest: services in LDCs are often informal, low-productivity, low-wage.
The challenge is to upgrade them – deepening linkages, building export capacity.
The call is not for more services, but better and a different nature of services.
Third, the Working Party.
Last week, you examined our technical cooperation results, our evaluation findings, and our programme plan for 2027 – the first fully aligned with the Geneva Consensus.
As I have previously informed you, we are also streamlining our flagship publications: the Technology and Innovation Report and the Digital Economy Report will merge into a single report, and the Economic Development in Africa Report will become biennial, produced in collaboration with ECA.
These changes reflect our commitment to deliver more with the resources we have.
Finally, one additional point.
In response to the request by the delegation of Palestine at the last session, a briefing on the effects of the occupation on the occupied Palestinian territory will be held on 27 February.
This will be a very important briefing, and I invite you all to participate.
Excellencies,
A packed agenda lies ahead.
I trust your deliberations will be as rich as they have always been.
I look forward to hearing from them, and to seeing you soon.
I thank you.