Trade and Development Board, Sixty-second session (Opening Plenary)

Statement by Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary General

I am pleased to welcome you to this year's TDB in this historic month in what has already been an historic year.

We gather here in Geneva as your Heads of State and Government prepare to go to New York and ratify the most comprehensive plan of action for global development that we have ever seen.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a bold, inclusive and collective vision for transforming the world we live in to achieve the future we all want.

Next week, I will represent UNCTAD at this once-in-a-lifetime summit. I take great personal satisfaction in the fact that the agenda that will be adopted in New York offers a universal consensus on dignity for all, a better planet for all, and prosperity for all, in close accordance with UNCTAD's own longstanding vision.

As you all know, the international community functions at its best when the relevant actors complement, rather than compete with, one another. In the lead up to the historic agreement on Sustainable Development Goals, with the support of you, our members, our relevant niche on investment trade and development and the added value it brings has been recognized and has made a lasting impression.

Our important role helping countries monitor and implement trade and development policies has been strengthened in the Financing for Development process, and in the SDG means of implementation discussion, notably with respect to our work on indicators and accountability.

It was gratifying this past July, when at the Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference, UNCTAD's core concerns and competencies were placed at the forefront of international discussion.

The Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the outcome document, strengthens our role as the focal point in the United Nations system for the interface between financing development and the SDG agenda over the next generation.

UNCTAD has an important role to play in the post-2015 agenda. And we must be fit to contribute our utmost to these efforts across the three pillars of our work.

To this end, we have continued our efforts to improve the organization.

On the management front, we have kept and built on my promise to mainstream RBM into the organization. We have the foundations, the training, and a coordination group responsible for implementation throughout the Divisions.

I am confident that UNCTAD will stay the course and focusing on results will remain our priority.

In addition, since January 2015, I have instituted Divisional compacts for all programme managers, a first in the UN family. This is helping us to establish priorities, maintain commonality of purpose and ensure results that matter.

I can assure you that our efforts to streamline processes in UNCTAD continue every day-- and this has already shown results. Let me give you an example. As of mid-2015, the number of outstanding recommendations addressed to UNCTAD is 5, all of which we are seeking to implement before the end of the year. This compares very positively with the over 30 outstanding recommendations that we had in 2010.

We have also enhanced ground visibility. In fact, in July we opened UNCTAD's regional office in Addis Ababa, the first of what I hope will be several regional offices. We are already doing

our part to serve our member States more closely to the ground.

We have also increased cooperation with other regional and international organizations, such as WTO, ITC, UNDP, the OECD, to mention a few. And we continue to work tirelessly and in closer cooperation with other organization to deliver on UN mandates, as highlighted by our report prepared for item 9 in the TDB agenda.

We continue to sharpen the relevance and coherence of our publications. We have revitalized the Publications Committee and re-engineered our policy clearance process. This has helped us to enhance cooperation and foster coherence.

I am also proud to tell you that we have launched UNCTAD's tool box for technical cooperation. It presents the battery of products that we offers to countries to pursue their development objectives. The toolbox is the product that many of you have implicitly demanded: a product that succinctly explains what UNCTAD can offer in different areas, and how what we offer is relevant and the impact and results our products can achieve.

Now, as the world turns from decisions to actions, we must fine tune our working machinery. I am pleased that this Trade and Development Board kicks off our official preparations for the UNCTAD XIV Conference -- the first major United Nations Conference of the post-2015 era.

Between now and March 2016, I look forward to working with members to come to consensus on how best to channel our energies to serve the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda so that UNCTAD can deliver support to trade and development in a more effective and more efficient manner than ever before.

This is why today I am launching to you, our member States, my Report of The Secretary-General to the UNCTAD XIV Conference.

In shaping my report, the genesis of my ideas was my meetings and private conversations with all of you in various forums and on my visits to your countries. I believe all of you will find your footprints in this report, leading in the direction of our Lima conference.

In this report, you will find my sense of the key issues on the global development agenda and how a renewed mandate for our organization can enable our robust contribution and leadership for the next generation. I trust you will find it defines an agenda and ambition that is in line with your hopes and aspirations for UNCTAD.

This TDB will also mark the formal launch of the PrepCom process to UNCTAD XIV. As I have stated all along, I want this process to exemplify a spirit of constructiveness and inclusiveness to guarantee the success of our conference, which is now less than 190 days away.

In my Report of the Secretary-General, a copy of which is available in English, French and Spanish at the back of this room, I highlight the achievements in trade and development that have been made to date. But I also describe the persisting and emerging challenges that threaten our quest of prosperity for all.

In the report, I place these challenges in the context of the new SDGs, and argue for four lines of action where UNCTAD can make a difference in implementing the new Agenda.

To achieve the SDGs, my Report outlines what I believe UNCTAD must do:

1. We must build productive capacity to transform economies.
2. We also must work towards more effective states and more efficient markets.
3. We must tackle vulnerabilities and build resilience.
4. And we must strengthen multilateralism to find common solutions.

To make this possible it is essential to operate at all three levels of governance: national, regional and international.

Make no mistake about it. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require a massive investment push over the next 20 years into a broader set of sectors and industries than we have ever seen undertaken on a worldwide scale.

Yet, today the gloomy state of the world economy imperils the chances for such an investment push. The slow pace of growth in global trade has us on track for the slowest period of trade expansion since the end of the Second World War. This trend is inconsistent with the enabling environment needed to achieve the SDGs.

The Least Developed Countries will be the "testing ground" of the SDGs. Massive needs must be met there, particularly in investment, infrastructure and also institutional capacity, if the SDGs are to be met.

Growth in emerging economies is what carried the MDGs, not just because of the poverty reduction in emerging markets themselves, but also because of a sustained commodity boom that fuelled growth across all developing regions. Hence the perilous state of emerging economies becomes worrisome beyond their borders.

Turning today's more uncertain growth prospects into tomorrow's SDG achievement raises the bar much higher for all countries.

But it is precisely in difficult times when cooperation between all peoples of all nations is most important. It is my belief that the SDGs can reinvigorate the ambition of international cooperation.

We need to ensure that cooperation does not falter when we need it most. And within our own sphere of expertise, UNCTAD must help accomplish this along the action lines I have outlined in my Report.

We have the tools to help engender the massive push for investment needed to transform economies and build capacity, reconnecting investment with finance and bringing a development perspective that helps countries harness the nexus between infrastructure, services, and regional cooperation.

We have the tools to support developmental states working towards more efficient markets and more effective governance, protecting the interests of consumers and competition, and supporting leadership across the developing world in taking their countries to a future of inclusive prosperity.

We have the tools to help countries tackle vulnerability and build resilience, promoting smart diversification of trade and investment to sustain growth in the poorest countries.

 

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my hope that my report will provide you a backdrop, against which you can do your part, as our deliberations towards UNCTAD XIV begin. My colleagues and I remain at your disposal to aid your discussions.

And as we officially embark on the road to UNCTAD XIV, I invite all of you to work together to make the first Conference of the post-2015 era rise to the same level of ambition as the SDGs themselves.

Thank you for your kind attention.