Madame
President
Honourable Ministers
My dear colleague Under-Secretary-General Ocampo
Distinguished delegates
It
is indeed a special honour and pleasure for me to address
the High-Level Segment of the 2004 Substantive Session of
the United Nations Economic and Social Council. For the
first time, ECOSOC has chosen a theme for its Ministerial
segment that focuses on the various dimensions of the development
challenges facing the world's fifty most vulnerable countries,
the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
At the
outset, I would like to pay tribute to you, Madame President,
for your leadership of the Council and for your guidance
and keen personal interest and involvement in the preparatory
process that commenced on 17 February bringing together
the focus of the UN system activities relating to the theme
and went on with major debates and exchange of ideas on
17 and 18 March with Ministerial participation bringing
in the country level experience. These two sets of preparatory
interactions contributed to the preparation of the report
of the Secretary-General on this year's theme available
to you in document E/2004/54. My Office and all our collaborating
partners would like to convey our deep appreciation to you
for that.
Earlier
today, we had the benefit of a very thought-provoking opening
session. The keynote address presented by His Excellency
President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin has set the tone for
the deliberations on the theme by the Ministers and other
senior leaders of delegations during these three days. His
speech contains ideas and proposals that deserve full consideration
by the ECOSOC and in its outcome document. I wish to commend
President Kerekou for his deep commitment to and wise leadership
of the cause of the 50 Least Developed Countries and his
country's continuing guidance as global coordinator for
the Group.
I take
this occasion to underscore that in establishing in 2002
the Office of the High Representative located at its headquarters,
the United Nations unequivocally expressed its support to
the concerns of the Least Developed Countries and emphasized
the need for greater attention and intensified action on
the part of all stakeholders in favour of these most vulnerable
countries. In discharging its main mandate, my Office undertakes
global advocacy and mobilizes international support for
the LDCs. Annual reviews of the implementation of the Brussels
Programme through progress reports of the Secretary-General
is a major responsibility of this Office. It is therefore
a matter of immense satisfaction to us all that this year
the ECOSOC session is giving in addition such a high profile
attention to the LDCs. We hope that the outcome will generate
new momentum to the fulfilment of the international community's
commitments to these impoverished nations.
Let
me also express how delighted I am to note the presence
and participation today of such big number of Ministers
and high-level delegates from the various parts of the world
who have come to United Nations Headquarters to take an
active part in the roundtables and interactions which have
been organized under the broader umbrella of this afternoon's
Investment Promotion Forum.
We are
now embarking on the interactive part of the High-Level
Segment where we want to explore what possibilities exist
to improve the investment climate and flow of resources
to the Least Developed Countries. Thus, this afternoon,
five simultaneous roundtables will focus on how to make
the LDCs more attractive for investors, as part of the broader
theme for the Segment. The roundtables will tackle issues
of particular interest to LDCs relating to both foreign
and domestic investment, the role of microfinance and microcredit
in the private sector development, trade preferences in
promoting investments, partnerships in mobilizing resources,
investment in the urban services sector - all with the basic
objective of poverty reduction in the Least Developed Countries.
Among
the roundtables this afternoon, my Office is hosting one
entitled "The role of trade preferences in LDCs in
promoting investment". International trade can become
a very effective mechanism for poverty reduction in LDCs.
One way to achieve this is to take an honest look at ways
to assist LDCs countries to take full advantage of existing
trading opportunities. The main question we will try to
answer is how trade preferences accorded to LDCs can generate
an increase in the level of domestic investment and how
can they be used to attract foreign direct investment in
order to take advantage of market access privileges accorded
by their development partners.
As you
embark on your discussions at the Forum roundtables, it
is pertinent to mention that tomorrow and day after there
will be two sets of seven simultaneous early morning Ministerial
breakfast roundtables on the theme of the Segment. We are
very confident that, given the high level profile of the
chairs and participants, all these roundtable discussions
will be extremely rich and bring out innovative ideas and
suggestions, benefiting from the vast field-based experience
in various areas. The outcomes of such interactive debates
should not be lost and find recognition by being taken note
of by the ECOSOC at the time of adoption of the Ministerial
Declaration.
I look
forward to what new ideas and creative proposals will be
generated by this afternoon's discussions that can be fed
into the wider, more broad-based debate on the implementation
of the Brussels Programme of Action for the LDCs.
I thank
you very much and look forward to the rich and interactive
discussion.
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