Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

Today we complete a process which started eight months ago, a process in which our leaders through the outcome of the World Summit laid the foundation to enhance development in which commitments were made, the systemic issues were already been agreed upon, all that was needed was full and timely implementation.

The Group of 77 and China had hoped that the follow up to the World Summit Outcome would lead us on a path to enhance the momentum gained by the World Summit Outcome to fully realize and implement the commitments of all major summits and conferences in the economic and social related fields including the MDGs and help create an environment which will enhance global political will on the necessity of improving the lives of over a billion people who live below the poverty line.

With the adoption of this resolution the question remains whether we have succeeded in the task set out for us by our leaders to mainstream development as the most important central pillar of the United Nations agenda.

This resolution does not reflect issues of implementation which it should have, in many cases it is just a reiteration of already agreed language from the World Summit Outcome and therefore does not succeed in maintaining the political will and momentum of the World Summit Outcome.

Without concrete actions to implement all the commitments on trade, agricultural subsidies and the transfer of vitally needed resources to developing countries which the developed community has already committed itself to achieving, we will not achieve our goal by 2015 to fully realize the outcomes of all major summits and conferences, including the MGD’s and the World Summit Outcome.

The resolution also fails in that there is no political will from our partners to create an equitable and balanced financial, economic and social global order which is necessary for creating a framework for implementation in an integrated, coordinated and comprehensive approach in the global partnership for development. The resolution, therefore, does not take the concept of national responsibility further into the realm of implementation in the context of how developing countries can be assisted so as to enable them to achieve the internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium Development Goals.

Mr. President,

Much as we appreciate the adoption of this resolution, the Group of 77 and China has two regrets. The first is that there was reluctance to improve the structure of the resolution by slight reordering of paragraphs. This is a pity as the willingness to continue the process under facilitation could have solved in a few hours the whole issue of placement of paragraphs and would have resulted in a far better resolution that the one we have just adopted.

The second regret is that during the negotiations the generous offer by the Emir of Qatar to host a review conference on the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus was left out because of the objection of our partners. The irony is that the General Assembly already accepted the offer of the State of Qatar to host this review conference in General Assembly resolution 60/188. We are pleased by the emphasis for the need for adequate and substantive preparation for the review conference that is contained in our resolution today and we will work hard in the 61 st Session to make sure that the offer by Qatar becomes a reality.

Mr. President,

With the adoption of this resolution, imperfect as it is, it is our hope that in the coming years all commitments undertaken will be implemented in a timely manner so as to create a better life for all those millions of people who so desperately need to be lifted out of dehumanizing poverty. And, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I would like to thank the two Co-Chairs and Facilitators for all the hard work they have done. We also acknowledge the cooperation of our negotiating partners who made it possible for us to adopt this resolution by consensus albeit many months later.

I thank you.