Mr. Chairman,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of Group of 77 and China under this agenda item.  

2. The Group of 77 and China would like to thank Ms. Sharon Van Buerle, Director Programme Planning and Budget Division, for the introduction of Secretary General's report  A/62/466.  We would also like to thank Mr. Rjat Saha, the Chairman of the ACABQ, for introduction of the relevant report.

3. The  Group of 77 and China would like to recall that ten years ago the Secretary General in his report  A/51/950   had proposed "Creating a Dividend for Development" from savings in administration and other overheads in the region of  $ 200 million.   Disappointingly, ten years later, the development account has only received 5 modest tranches of $ 13.06 million dollars over the five successive biennium. The account thus remains far below the proposed level. Through this account 94 projects have been funded and implemented by single and multiple United Nations agencies in the areas of critical importance to the developing countries. The stringent criteria and plethora of conditionalities for the projects approved for funding from development account are not applicable to any other programme in the Organization.  These projects meet highest standards of efficiency as attested to by the Secretary-General and had a positive impact  on the development efforts in many developing countries. They have been rated as highly successful by the programme managers in contributing to the technical capacity building in developing countries, the realization of the internationally agreed targets and goals and complementing national development strategies.

4. The Group notes with great concern the content of table 2 in the Secretary-General's report on percentage of single, joint, regional, interregional and global projects. The Group of 77 and China will be seeking further clarifications on the reasons that led to this situation.

5. The Group of 77 and China appreciates the Secretary-General for presenting a detailed account of the importance and rationale for the usefulness of the development account. Regrettably, the report falls short of our expectation since the savings and efficiencies in the range of $ 2.5 million dollars for this account could not be identified. We are disappointed that the difficult compromise reached among the Member States in the resolution 61/252 on the identification of $ 2.5 million for transfer to this account has failed to materialize.  Moreover, we do not believe that the 3 options listed in paragraph 78 of the report to deal with this issue in future are of any practical value in the context of identifying the desired resources for this fund.  

6. The report clearly suggests that meaningful savings or efficiency gains to strengthen development account are not foreseeable. We are therefore convinced that the General Assembly must take a decisive action to deal with this issue. We would pursue tangible increase in the level of the development account through appropriation in the regular budget in the current session.  We would also request the Secretary-General to divert the unspent balance from the limited flexibility accorded to him by resolution 61/283 to this account.  

I thank you Mr. Chairman.