GROUP OF 77
GENEVA

SPEECH OF H.E. AMBASSADOR AND PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE J. DELMER URBIZO, CHAIRMAN OF THE G77 AND CHINA AT THE UNCTAD 41ST EXECUTIVE SESSION OF THE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD (Geneva, 18-20 April 2007)

Mr. Chairman
Ladies and Gentleman

Mr. Chairman on behalf of G77 and China I wish to thank Dr. Supachai, Secretary General of UNCTAD for his leadership in our work and to the Secretariat for assisting us in our substantives deliberations.

After a successful year 2006 when we completed the mid term review of the Sao Paolo Consensus in which, among other things, we reaffirmed the strengthening of the three main pillars of the organization; we began this year with additional successes.  Member states and the Secretariat have done an efficient work executing the mandate of UNCTAD, beginning with important outcomes like the culmination of the work of the three commissions, whose reports will be adopted during this executive board meeting.

Mr. Chairman

We achieved important outcomes in the 11th Sessions of the three commissions; it is not my intention to repeat these outcomes, as they will soon be ably and eloquently reported by respective chairmen of each Commission. I wish to underline that the reaffirmation of the mandate of UNCTAD relative to the Sao Paulo Consensus in the outcomes of the Commissions is for us a significant forward step. All the three Commissions have provided solid policy direction to UNCTAD on various substantive issues of my group’s interests, and a validation of UNCTAD's work. The agreed recommendations of each Commission also provide a focus on areas of work that deserve to be examined further in the UNCTAD XII process. The Commissions thus have ably served their purposes as intergovernmental mechanisms for deliberation and for building of consensus.

Mr Chairman

Our group highlights the discussions on the report of the Panel of Eminent Persons, which have led today to adopt an agreed outcome based on our consultations chaired by Ambassador Gafoor. It is our expectation that these recommendations will make a positive contribution toward enhancing the development role and impact of UNCTAD.

At the same time we would like to thank enormously, Ambassador Gafoor for his leadership, constructive attitude and patience in our deliberations.

Mr Chairman.

Let me now turn to UNCTAD XII which, we all know will be held in Accra, Ghana in April next year. Just to remind everyone, the start of the Conference is exactly twelve months away.

The preparations of the conference are very advanced and soon the PEPCOM will be established to proceed to the negotiations of the final outcomes.

Members States must congratulate ourselves for meeting the deadline of this TDB, at which we will soon endorse the Theme and sub-themes which were a result of hard work by all regional representatives. Although the beginning looked hard, we managed to reach consensus at the end and it is our hope that the lessons learned during this process will provide a better basis for our work ahead. We would like to thank profoundly Ambassador Stephenson for his effective leadership in our discussions. The work that awaits us will be even more rigorous and it will require not only diplomatic skills but a real commitment to work together in a constructive way to reach result that would strengthen in a substantive way the mandates of UNCTAD and its contributions to the strengthening of the UN system in the Global development discussions.

 The 12th UNCTAD Conference in Ghana should transform itself in the beginning of a clear relaunching of UNCTAD, based on the current substantial reforms and according to the new realities in the field of trade and development.

Thank you Mr. Chairman