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Your Excellency Dr. Nkosazana C. Dlamini Zuma, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Madame President of the General Assembly
Mr. Secretary-General
Mr. Administrator of the UNDP
H.E. Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo
Mr. Executive Secretary of the Group of 77
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. First let me extend my most sincere thanks to His Excellency Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo, the Chairman of the Group of 77 for inviting me to this meeting.
2. It is a distinct honour and privilege to address Your Excellencies this morning on behalf of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and the Trieste System of International Scientific Organizations.
3. TWAS was founded in 1983 in Trieste (Italy) by a group of internationally renowned scientists from developing countries under the leadership of the Late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam from Pakistan and was launched in 1985 by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
4. Currently, TWAS has 850 Members from 90 countries (77 in the South and 13 in the North); these include the developing world’s most accomplished and distinguished scientists.
5. TWAS, which has come to be called the “Voice of Science in the South”, has implemented a broad-range of programmes that promote scientific excellence in the developing world and build scientific capacity, especially through South-South cooperation to address real-life problems facing our societies.
6. In 1988, TWAS facilitated the establishment of the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO) by Ministers of Science and Technology, Presidents of National Research Councils and Academies of Science in Developing Countries.
7. TWNSO, which has 150 Members, is a very influential partner of TWAS and the Trieste System; and has helped TWAS to raise $10 million as contributions from developing countries to the TWAS Endowment Fund.
8. TWAS also facilitated the establishment of the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS), which currently has over 2800 women scientists from 80 developing countries as Members, making it the largest association of women scientists in the world.
9. Other Members of the Trieste System of international organizations include the ICTP, ICGEB and ICS, all working individually or jointly to promote the cause of science in the South. Over 5,000 Scientists, the majority of them from developing countries, visit the Trieste System every year to participate in various scientific activities.
10. This cluster of scientific organizations has, over the past 40 years, transformed Trieste into a dynamic “International City of Science for the Developing World” – a City that recognizes the full value of building and sustaining excellence in science, technology and innovation in the South, as a primary strategy for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for creating a peaceful and prosperous world where differences in culture and values are viewed with wonder and not suspicion.
11. The Trieste System owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Italian Government, which has been the primary source of its funding since the System’s inception.
12. Madame Chairperson, I am pleased to say that for the last five years TWAS and the Trieste System have been working very closely with the Chairmen and the Secretariat of the Group of77 in the implementation of the science and technology decisions made by the two South Summits held in Havana and Doha.  Important among these decisions is the establishment of the G-77 Consortium on Science and Technology.
13. Last July, the Chairman and the Executive Secretary of the Group of 77 visited Trieste and met with the Heads of all international organizations in the Trieste System.  The meeting agreed that the best way to implement the decision of the South Summit concerning the Consortium would be not to create a new overlapping organization, but  to propose to TWNSO to consider converting itself into the Consortium.
14. I am happy to report that both the Executive Board and the General Assembly of TWNSO met on 2 September 2006 in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and took a historic decision to transform TWNSO into a G-77 Consortium on Science, Technology and Innovation for the South (COSTIS).
15. I am also happy to report that the following day on 3 September 2006, the Ministers of Science and Technology of the Member States of the Group of 77 met and approved the establishment of COSTIS and asked the Chairman of the G-77 and the President of TWAS to appoint a Joint Task Force to draft a Constitution for COSTIS.
16. We envisage the membership of the Consortium to be similar to that of TWNSO which includes:
    • Ministries responsible for Science and Technology in developing countries;
    • National Research Councils responsible for Science and Technology in developing countries;
    • Science and Technology Foundations in developing countries; and
    • National Academies of Sciences in developing countries.
    In addition, we propose to add a new category of Membership for the Consortium and that is: Private Sector institutions that deal in Science and Technology.
17. This structure for the Consortium will provide a unique platform for governmental agencies responsible for science policy and for funding research and development to interact strongly with the leadership in academia and science–based industry.

Among the important activities of the Consortium will be the convening of periodic South-South Forums on Science, Technology and Innovation to address specific topics of major concern to the South, such as the development and implementation of simple and affordable technologies for safe drinking water and renewable energy; and the application of frontier technologies such as biotechnologies, ICTs, and nanotechnologies to real-life problems in the South.

Madame Chairperson, TWAS and the Trieste System will be pleased to host the Secretariat of the Consortium and I am pleased to report that as a result of recent discussions in Rome between the G-77 Chairman and senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have been promised support by the Italian Government for the Consortium.

In conclusion, Madame Chairperson, with the establishment of the Consortium, a major decision of the South Summit has been implemented.  There is, however, another important decision of the South Summit closely linked to the Consortium, which needs to be addressed. That is the establishment of a Trust Fund for the Promotion of Knowledge and Technology in the South, to be provided on a voluntary basis by Governments, Foundations and Private Sector.   We now seek the support of Your Excellencies in the establishment of this Fund, which will provide an enduring foundation for supporting the activities of the Consortium.

Finally, I wish to thank once again Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo, Chairman of the Group of 77, and Mr. Mourad Ahmia, Executive Secretary of the Group of 77, for their tireless efforts to strengthen our strategic partnership with the G-77.  I am confident that this partnership will grow even stronger in the future.

Thank you.