28 July 2016 — Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, Head of the Philippine Delegation to the Fourteenth United Nations Conference on Trade Development (UNCTAD XIV) that was held in Nairobi, Kenya from July 17 to 22, called on member States of the United Nations to strengthen the institution that was founded in 1964 to promote trade and development. This year’s conference resulted in the Nairobi Maafikiano or the Nairobi Consensus, which determines the work of the UNCTAD for the next four years and was a step in the right direction in terms of broadening the mandate of the institution.
Ambassador Rebong, in her statement, said that, “Given the current global uncertainties with the projected slow growth in some developed and developing economies, the continuing drop in commodity prices, the increasing number of cases filed against mostly developing countries due to investor-state dispute settlements, the implications of sovereign debt as well tax avoidance and tax evasion, there is a clear need for a stronger UNCTAD, one that can continue and even expand its work. Especially since countries will be calling on it to assist us to meet the goals and targets set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
She added that “UNCTAD has proven its value in helping developing countries through its three pillars of consensus building, research and analysis, and technical cooperation. In the case of the Philippines, we benefit greatly from UNCTAD’s work on competition and in fact we were able to enact the Philippine competition law last year and established the Philippine Competition Commission this year, thanks to the assistance of the organization. Aside from competition policy, UNCTAD’s work on providing customs data and debt management through its key programs of ASYCUDA (Automated System for Customs Data) and DMFAS (Debt Management and Financial Analysis System) have proven to be invaluable tools to the Philippine government.”
She ended her statement by calling on member States of the United Nations to “Give UNCTAD the resources, the means, and the mandate, so that it may, in turn assist us reach our avowed goal, which we made in 1964, and that is for prosperity to be achieved by all.”
UNCTAD was created in 1964. It was established to help developing countries achieve their development goals by focusing on trade and development and the interrelated issues of finance, technology, investment, and sustainable development. A major conference is held very four years to determine the mandate of the organization and what areas it would focus or work on given the development challenges at the time. This year’s conference focused on how countries could move towards an inclusive and equitable global economic environment for trade and development. In the period before the next major conference, members of the United Nations hold sessions in Geneva to see how they can implement the mandate that was agreed upon. The next UNCTAD meeting will be in 2020. The Philippines hosted UNCTAD V in Manila in 1980. END