STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. MOHAMED BENNOUNA, AMBASSADOR, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE KINGDOM OF MOROCCO TO THE UNITED NATIONS, ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA, AT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY JOINT DEBATE ON REFORM OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND REVITALIZATION OF THE WORK OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (New York, 27 October 2003)

Mr. President,

Allow me, at the outset, to express, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, our sincere congratulations to the Secretary General for his ongoing efforts to implement his programme of change which aims at centralizing the actions of the United Nations around the priorities Member States have set forth in the Millennium Declaration and in the major United Nations conferences held recently.

Mr. President,

The reform of the United Nations is a process that requires a strategy to define its priority stages in order to enable the Organization to face the major challenges of globalization, which are the eradication of poverty and the maintenance of international peace and security.

Serving to our best the entire humanity and ensuring the prosperity of millions of people suffering from the scourges of poverty and other devastating epidemics must be the primary objectives and directing beacon of collective actions aiming at the reform of our multilateral Organization.

Mr. President,

We are convinced, more than ever before, of the necessity of reforming the multilateral institutions to enable our Organization to adapt, at its best, to the new problems and situations that face the world. Our common thoughts on the reform should be accompanied by a sustainable effort and true will aiming at reinforcing our collective actions in order to achieve the Millennium development goals.

This reform should not be perceived as an end in itself, it should aim primarily at reinforcing the international cooperation and fulfilling the promises made at the major Conferences and Summits of the United Nations in order to allow the developing countries, particularly the least developing ones, to achieve the development goals of the Millennium for the economic and social well- being of their people.

Mr. President,

Strengthening our Organization calls for a reshaping of the architecture of the intergovernmental organs, their programmes and methods of work, mainly the General Assembly, the ECOSOC and the Security Council. Concerning the latter, which is the principle responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, it is clear that the conditions that determined its composition and its functioning have deeply changed. Therefore, it is convenient to place this question on the agenda of the meetings of our leaders so as to obtain the guidelines of the reform of the Security Council that we could refine later in New York so that it takes place in the context of a new charter.

Revitalizing the General Assembly is at the heart of the reform process of our Organization. This reform should not be carried out in different parallel processes, but rather in a coherent approach.

All the efforts should be channeled towards the goals set forth by our Head of States and Governments in the general debate in a way that positively associates the expertise and the political will. All the actors of the international relations have expressed their support for the reform, convinced that an Organization that is more performing and more adapted to the world of the after Cold War is in the interest of all the members of the United Nations family, regardless of their size, believes or culture.

The Group of 77 and China was created in the sixties to act collectively in favor of the democratization of international relations in order to eliminate the serious disparities that divide the members of the international community. This means that reinforcing the efficiency of the UN has always been part and parcel of our priorities, which should enable us to perform better actions to reduce poverty and eradicate the most serious deficits.

Since the Millennium Declaration, we have spared no effort to hold international conferences on sustainable development and the financing of development or trade.

We succeeded this year in adopting resolution 57/270 B on the integrated follow-up and implementation of these conferences to achieve the millennium development goals. This resolution implies that the General Assembly and ECOSOC could play a role in the control of the implementation in the follow-up of these conferences and summits and in the adoption of the necessary measures of adjustment.

Hence, ECOSOC should be more operational in the coordination of the actions of the UN specialized institutions and in the reinforcement of cooperation with the Bretton woods institutions to give them the necessary impetus.

On the other hand, it is important that the General Assembly could hold a permanent session all along the year and react to the proposals coming directly from the international environment or through the ECOSOC to synthesize and react timely to the challenges of globalization.

The General Assembly should be able to establish thematic groups whenever it should take a position on a given question. The composition of such groups, if they are open, could be carried out with due respect to transparency.

Mr. President,

The Group of 77 and China supports the initiatives aiming at reaching a better efficiency and visibility in the work of the General Assembly.

We think that the General Assembly can make a better use of its decision making power in budgetary matters according to article 17 of the Charter.

Budgetary and financial reform should be pursued in the sense expressed in GA resolution 57/300. This means that the General Assembly should give itself the means to make the strategic choices and decide on priorities in the budgetary actions which can not be purely technical and carried out only by experts. In this regard, the future of the Committee of programming and coordination should be considered in order to really fulfill its functions.

Mr. President,

The Group of 77 and China welcomes the submission of the several reports requested by the General Assembly in its resolution 57/300 of last December. We trust that these reports should form a good basis for further negotiations ahead.

. For the time being, the Group of 77 would like to state that we will approach the budgetary reform process in a positive and constructive manner, and we are ready to engage in meaningful discussions on this subject. The Group would like to undertake a comprehensive reform, where all components of the budgetary process should be discussed in an integrated manner.

Furthermore, the Group would like to point out that the issue of budgetary reform requires thorough discussion and should be devoted adequate time. The process of negotiations should be transparent, open to all member states, and also fully facilitated with the relevant information to enable the Member States to take informed decisions.

. We do find merit in moving expeditiously in agreeing and eventually implementing the approved measures. We are however not sure if it would be feasible to do so, if not all the Member States’ concerns are taken on board.

. The Group of 77 and China feels that the proposed changes in the United Nations budgetary process, and the attendant proposed adjustments in the mandates of the relevant intergovernmental bodies, is a major undertaking, which should be reflected upon to acquire full knowledge of the resultant implications of any change.

This is equally true with the possible implications of any changes in the key instruments governing the planning, programming, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation cycle – like the Medium-Term Plan – established by the United Nations through delicately negotiated resolutions and decisions.

The Group attaches great importance to the follow up to resolution 57/300, and looks forward to discussing the status of implementation of the various provisions of this resolution during the informal consultations on this matter.

Mr. President,

It would be useful to extend the work of the General Assembly on the whole year to enable us to concentrate on the different activities and to make them as visible as possible.

Work on the revitalization and reform initiated during the session should be pursued next year, without waiting the report of the group of eminent personalities to be created by the Secretary General.

Mr. President,

The Group of 77 and China grants a great importance to the preparation of the highest-level meetingin 2005 on the integrated follow-up and implementation of the Millennium goals as foreseen by resolution 57/ 270B.

We hope that this summit would place questions of development on the General Assembly momentum. In this regard, this meeting should be prepared with professionalism next year.

Our Group remains ready to fully cooperate in this respect in order to achieve timely results to initiate the highly desired real dynamics of the reform.

Thank you, Mr. President.