22 October 2015 - Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and Chairperson of the Geneva Chapter of the Group of 77 and China (G77) addressed the First Preparatory Committee Meeting on October 05 for the 14th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that will be held next year. The President of the 62nd Session of the Trade and Development Board, Ambassador Pedro d’Alotto of Argentina, had called for the meeting in order to hear the views of the various groups on their vision for UNCTAD XIV.
In her comprehensive remarks Ambassador Rebong emphasized that “UNCTAD XIV has to go back to its roots, all the way back to UNCTAD I, which set out to bridge the development gaps and reform the global economic system so that all countries, and all people, could maximize their potential.”
She added that “UNCTAD XIV is an opportunity to discuss the difficult issues facing trade and development. It will be the global community’s chance to come up with new approaches to resolve all of the problems of the world in terms of trade and development in an innovative, integrated, and holistic manner, while taking into account the policy space of each country and its sovereign right to establish and implement policies for inclusive and sustainable development.”
The first UNCTAD was held in Geneva in 1964. It was established with the avowed goal of achieving prosperity for all, especially for countries from the developing South. Its mission was to serve as a platform for the South to negotiate changes to the global economic order dominated by countries from the developed North and to support efforts of developing countries in pursuing stable and inclusive development paths.
Some of the challenges that existed during the time of UNCTAD’s founding continue to exist and so the Group of 77 and China will be calling for reform of the multilateral trading system, which would include a study on the growing influence of unregulated capital flows in shaping that trading system as well as the importance of intra-firm trade and global value chains. The issue of sovereign external debt is also high on the agenda for the Group, given recent debt crises faced by both a developed and developing country, namely Greece and Argentina. The Group of 77 and China has always recognized the importance of policy space and allowing countries to have that freedom to choose the appropriate policy mix, which should also be discussed in UNCTAD XIV. The Group would also like UNCTAD to look into the important issue of investments.
The fourteenth edition of the Conference that will be held in 2016 is expected to come up with an agreement among UN member states that will chart the course on how to improve conditions for trade and development for the next four years. Negotiations will take place over the coming months between the G77 and China and its partners from the developed world on the specific issues that UNCTAD XIV will address. Amb. Rebong as chair of the Geneva Chapter will be leading the negotiations. She is assisted by First Secretary Raphael Hermoso, the Mission’s expert on economic and development issues. END