Mr. Chairman,

1. I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China at the resumption of the work of the Fifth Committee in its first resumed 63rd session.

2. The Group expresses its sincere thanks and appreciation to you, the Bureau and the Secretariat for the preparations for the first resumed session. We assure you and our partners of our cooperation and constructive engagement to make this session a success.

3. The Group would like to reiterate its serious concerns over the status of documentation.  It has become a practice to have many reports on important items being issued at the eleventh hour, a situation that hinders the proper consideration of these reports by member States. It is well known to all stakeholders that the General Assembly has called for the issuance of all documents, in all working languages, six weeks before the opening of the session. However, it is regrettable that this rule has not been complied with and the Committee was forced to consider a considerable number of documents in a hurry. This session will not be the exception in that regard.

4. To streamline the work of the Fifth Committee and proceed with a careful consideration of the agenda items, both reports of the Secretary-General and the ACABQ should be available to the Committee at least six weeks in advance. Unless this timeline seems to be respected, the Group believes that the Committee, which has often been taken hostage to the late issuance of the relevant documents, should be in a position to prioritize its work and consider only time-bound issues.

5. Regarding the other issues whose documents are not timely published, their authors should be held accountable for their late issuance and the Group is of the view that their consideration should be deferred to a later stage.

6. When we raise the Group's concerns regarding the late issuance of documents, we refer to all kinds of documents and reports to be considered by the Committee including the reports of the Secretary-General as well as the reports of the ACABQ.

7. The Group requests the Secretary-General as well as the Chairperson of the ACABQ to pay serious attention to this long standing concern of all delegations in order to enable the Committee to conclude its consideration of all agenda items in an efficient and effective manner.

8. In regard to the programme of work, the Group thanks the Chairman and member of the Bureau and the Secretariat of the Committee for their efforts to provide the member States with the proposed tentative programme of work. However, in the absence of many documents we could only endorse the proposed schedule for the first and the second weeks, and request the Bureau to continue its consultations with the member States and the ACABQ in order to prepare the programme of work for the remaining period, taking into account that priority should be given to the time-bound issues.

9. In conclusion, the Group of 77 and China would like to reiterate its assurances of its full cooperation and looks forward to a close and constructive engagement with all partners during this session and wish you all the best for a successful conclusion.

        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.