Trade and Development Board, seventy-first session: High-level session on UNCTAD16

Your excellency, Chair,

Distinguished delegates, dear colleagues, dear friends,

It is with a deep sense of purpose and anticipation that I stand before you today, to unveil the theme of our next ministerial conference, UNCTAD16, set to take place next year: "Shaping the future: Driving sustainable economic transformation for a changing world".

This theme reflects the undeniable reality of our times.

Our world is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by technological advancements, shifting geopolitical landscapes, and the urgent need to rekindle growth while addressing environmental challenges and widening inequalities. 

The transformation we are experiencing is not a placid sea, gently moving all boats equally. Some command mighty ships, others drive speedy yachts, others cling to shaky rafts, and many more are left treading water. Our big challenge is to close the gaps and build, support and strengthen the capacities to adapt, to innovate, and to harness the winds of change.

The asymmetries are evident everywhere we look. The debt burdens, the declining climate finance, the fraying safety nets of many of the countries. The unequal access to AI technologies, the ownership and distribution of the data that power them, and the basic digital infrastructures that underpin them. We see it in the unevenness of countries fiscal capacity to do much needed industrial policy of their own. We see it in the growing disruptions of global supply chains and the disproportionate effects these disruptions have on the trading costs of different food and energy net importers. We see it the emergence of the new commodities, such as critical minerals, and their promise of prosperity and productive development, but also their threat of creating new forms of commodity dependence.

But this disparity is not just a matter of economics. It is a matter of voice, of agency, of the power to shape one's own destiny. In a world where change is happening so fast  and where the future seems so uncertain, the voices of the marginalized and the vulnerable have to be heard.

This conference is an opportunity to change that narrative. We cannot afford to be passive in the face of change. We cannot simply react to events as they unfold, hoping for the best. We must be proactive, we must be deliberate, we must be strategic. When we say "shaping the future", what we mean is that the future is not something that happens to us. It is something we build, and we have to build it together.

This is why we emphasize the word "drive" in the theme, "Driving sustainable economic transformation". Because the deeper truth of the storm is not that some countries are ridding bigger ships than others; it is that no one is truly at the helm. The winds of change are fierce, and the waters are treacherous. We are all, in a sense, adrift when we try to navigate alone.

Your excellencies,

Navigation is not just about having the right tools; it's about having a clear destination.

As I said in my opening address to the 60th Anniversary – we now live in a multipolar world. But multipolarity itself is not a choice. What is a choice is multilateralism.

Multipolarity without multilateralism is a recipe for further fragmentation and conflict. But multipolarity with multilateralism offers the promise of an inclusive future, where many voices are heard, where cooperation coexists, and where the global community works together to address global challenges. For that, multilateralism needs to respond from the bottom up, from the periphery to the center, and from the pluriversal to the universal. And from the aggregate of averages to the specific vulnerabilities of countries and people.

UNCTAD16 will be crucial to say with concrete deeds how this institution, because of its universal membership, because of its memory, because of its knowledge and because of its mandate, is positioned to shape this new future.

Your excellencies,

In the coming months, the world's attention will be drawn to a multitude of critical summits and conferences. In 2024 we havethe Summit of the Future, COP29, and the LLDC3. In 2025, we have the social summit, the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, COP30,  to name but a few. Each will grapple with the interconnected challenges of our time, seeking solutions to complex problems that demand our collective wisdom and resolve.

To rise from this crowded landscape, UNCTAD16 must be a conference that delivers tangible outcomes that strengthen our organization's contribution in the new global economy.

Our focus must be on usefulness – on proving that UNCTAD is not just a think tank, but a think-and-do tank. A place where ideas are not merely incubated but nurtured into concrete action. A place where research and analysis, technical cooperation and consensus building, the three pillars of UNCTAD, are considered coherently through each of our objectives. We heard you today in the general debate. In many of the areas stressed will have to inform us going forward emphasizing the continued relevance of the four transformations of the Bridgetown Covenant.

Our work on environmental challenges from a development perspective, the work we already initiated on critical minerals, so we ably carried out by the DSG in the UN commission, and with it the call for productive capacities and productive diversification, access to digital and green technologies, the push for more inclusive trade in global value chains, the dialogue on the international financial architecture and climate financing, not only for mitigation but also adaptation. We also heard the call for our technical cooperation instruments and platforms. South-South Cooperation, ASYCUDA, DMFAS, our policy assessments, and our work in international standards. But we also heard repeatedly the word ‘dialogue’, ‘consensus building’, ‘partnerships’ with other organizations, and the need to use the strength of our universal membership. We also heard the call for strategic focus, more cross-fertilization between our divisions and improvements in our work modalities, and the need to support and strengthen UNCTAD itself.

In the two senior management retreats we had this August, I made clear to our staff that it was crucial for UNCTAD to be a results-based institution that is there before, during, and after.

Before, with strengthened, better-funded, more synergistic technical cooperation, capacity building and policy support; and after, with more far-seeing, data-driven, evidence-based research that incorporates perspectives on the issues that we have discussed, and for the groups that are different,for environment and development, on trade and gender, on the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS,  in a holistic way. But I emphasized also that we should be present during, while events are still unfolding, and offer countries the best of our knowledge and data capabilities. Our rapid assessments, and the GCRG, are concrete proofs of our ability to do just that.  

A big part of this will be our ability to build consensus, both within, as well as outside of UNCTAD. To ensure that our intergovernmental machinery is not just a hall where decisions take place, but a bridge, a channel, that connects to other halls, other institutions, other tables of negotiation. Because our impact cannot be measured in the texts we approve here, but in how far these texts travel, and in how much they inform those that are outside.

UNCTAD16 is an opportunity to strengthen and upgrade our work across the board, within and among our three pillars. And to do this so that we become a tool more useful for you to collectively undertake the sustainable economic transformations this changing world compel.

Your excellencies,

I hope that by the next time we meet, I will be able to share with you the venue and exact date for our next ministerial. So far, however, I can already advance that the venue will be in Asia and will take place in the last quarter of 2025. Beyond regional rotation, the Asian location will be a great opportunity, given Asia’s growing weight on trade, technology – as well as its successful regional integration efforts, and diplomatic heft. Next year will mark the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, which was perhaps the first principled declaration for a more inclusive multilateralism, shaped by the voice and aspirations of the developing world.

Regarding the next steps for the preparation of the conference, I look forward to work with the preparatory committee that the Board will establish in this session chaired by Ambassador Bekkers.

Dear Ambassador, you will have the full support of the secretariat as we work towards an ambitious and successful UNCTAD16. I hope you will all discuss and approve a theme for the conference by the next executive session of the TDB.

In the meantime, I will prepare a report on the substantive issues to be addressed by the conference which will be presented to the preparatory committee by late October.

It is my expectation that it will serve as a good basis for the negotiating partners for their position papers and for all of us to build on what will be the outcome of our conference.

Apart from that, allow me also to add that this will be the first UNCTAD Ministerial conference that will take place from beginning to end under my secretariat. In the last three years, we have worked tirelessly to build your trust, to prove once more our value through concrete actions and tangible results. We have listened to your concerns, learned from your experiences, and adapted our approaches to better serve your needs. The success of our recent sixtieth anniversary shows that the trust is indeed there, and that the hard work has been worth it.

Your excellencies,

As I said at the start, change is like a storm. But storms also bring renewal. They clear away the old and make way for the new. Let us, therefore, embrace this storm, not with fear, but with courage. Let us navigate these turbulent waters together, with purpose, determination, and a shared vision we can all shape.

I thank you.