UNCTAD 14 Opening Ceremony: Second segment with HE Ms. Amina Mohamed and Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari

Honorable Minister,
Your Excellency,
Ambassador Amina Mohamed,
Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Kenya,
President of the 14th session of UNCTAD,
Your Excellency Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz, President of UNCTAD 13,
Excellencies, Honorable Ministers, Head of Delegations, Ambassadors, distinguished guest, ladies and gentleman,

• The UNCTAD conference only takes place every four years, but the leadership of the host country is a four-year commitment, extending far beyond the five days of the Conference session and encompassing the entire period until the next Conference.

• We thank you, Dr. Al-Kuwari, for your service as President of the 13th UNCTAD Conference. You have been a tireless advocate of the UNCTAD 13 outcome. The Doha Manar, the political declaration that accompanied the Doha Mandate delivered at UNCTAD 13, has provided the appropriate guidance we needed in implementing the Doha outcome over the last four years.

• We thank the Government of Qatar for continuing to support UNCTAD activities, notably through support to activities of the World Investment Forum, and also to our celebrations in 2014 of UNCTAD's 50th anniversary. Dr, Al -Kuwari, you have served as President of the Conference at a time when UNCTAD has reflected on its history, and renewed itself for the future ahead; we are grateful for your leadership at this important endeavour.

• Thank you for discharging your duties as President of the 13th UNCTAD Conference honorably, and for joining us today to pass along this important responsibility to the Government of Kenya.

• Your Excellency, Madame Cabinet Secretary, we are deeply honored that you are with us to take on the responsibility, on behalf of the Government of Kenya, of presiding over this 14th UNCTAD session.

• We thank your leadership and the efforts of your officers in preparing Kenya's hosting of this 14th UNCTAD Conference. We are inspired that the Conference will take up important questions of the world economy, over the next week, at the moment when the world is looking for concrete answers on how to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. We are the more inspired to do so here in the same historical venue, where the 4th UNCTAD Conference took place 40 years ago.

• May Kenya's continuing dedication to trade and development, and Kenya's unceasing advocacy on behalf of all developing countries, give us the guidance we shall need to renew UNCTAD's purpose for the ambitious 2030 Agenda that stands before us.

• We look forward to the engagement and leadership of the Government of Kenya over the deliberations of the coming week, and to your commitment over the next four years, so that we can put the promise of the new development agenda for the benefit of the development of all UNCTAD members.

• And, I am confident under your presidency of this conference, members will roll up their sleeves building on the good work done in Geneva, bridge their remaining differences and ensure a successful, ambitious and action-oriented outcome: an outcome that does full justice to the high ambitions of Agenda 2030.

Thank you for your attention.