GROUP OF 77
GENEVA

STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY MR. DIEGO AULESTIA VALENCIA, AMBASSADOR AND PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ECUADOR, CHAIRMAN OF THE GROUP OF 77, AT THE SIXTY-SIXTH SESSION OF THE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD ON AGENDA ITEM 8 - UNCTAD CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AND FOLLOW-UP TO THE OUTCOMES OF THE MAJOR UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS IN THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FIELDS
(Geneva, 26 June 2019)

Mr. President, H.E Mr. Michael Gaffey (Ireland),
Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Ms. Isabelle Durant,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. The Group of 77 and China would like to congratulate the work UNCTAD carries and would like to particularly recognize in this case the Statistics Unit.

2. UNCTAD is a party of many multilateral commitments on the field of development. The role played by UNCTAD, particularly within the pillar of research and analysis, is crucial and relevant and regrettably does not receive enough recognition along with the UN system. Statistics and economic research by this institution are well-known and constitute a useful reference.

3. The Group of 77 and China confers a high value to the role played by this organization in relation to the meeting of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council. We encourage UNCTAD to continue its role in the Commission on Science and Technology for Development given the challenges posed by the technological gap to the developing countries along with the need to agree on mechanisms of technology transfer.

4. The Group of 77 and China would like to refer as well to the participation at the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up. In this regard, we express our full support to the efforts made by UNCTAD to contribute with the accomplishment of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development. Particularly we would like to remark our appreciation regarding the technical and analytical work and policy recommendations on illicit financial flows, taxation, debt, among others.

5. The Group of 77 and China would like to reinforce a message conveyed in previous items of this meeting. The Group of 77 and China considers UNCTAD's hard work requires more efforts to gain political visibility. In this respect, we would like to express our concern because of the exclusion of UNCTAD in some important documents produced by different instances of the UN system. There was no mention of UNCTAD in the outcome of the BAPA +40 Conference on South-South Cooperation. This organization was excluded also from the draft of the annual resolution ECOSOC discuss on the "Implementation of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits: review and coordination of the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020". As Member States we assume our responsibility on this omission, however, we recognize as well the crucial role secretariats of multilateral organizations play in enhancing their political visibility. In this respect, the Group of G77 and China will highly appreciate UNCTAD's office in New York take the lead in adequately positioning UNCTAD contributions within the UN system.

6. UNCTAD's history is closely related to G77's. We believe, as in 1964, that the issue of trade and development is important. Moreover, as was the case in the first conference, we are eager to engage in discussions on industrialization and economic issues from the perspective of development.

7. The Group of 77 and China trusts UNCTAD's capacity to provide the development perspective to the discussions on trade at multilateral forums.
I thank you,