2. We thank you for convening this meeting, and we particularly thank the Secretary General for providing us with this briefing about the UN 80 initiative.

3. The members of the Group have followed with deep concern the dire liquidity situation of the Organization which has seriously impacted mandate delivery. The Group stresses that the most fundamental and effective answer to the recurrent liquidity problems of the Organization depends on Member States fulfilling their obligations to pay their assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions.

4. This also requires, in certain instances, the removal of any impediment to enable Member States to fully and effectively fulfill their financial obligations with the Organization.

5. It is deeply disturbing that not only the Secretariat, but many of the agencies, funds and programmes of the UN system are at grave risk because of the delinquency in or the withdrawal of financial contributions.

6. We also emphatically recall that one single Member State, which is also the only beneficiary of the maximum ceiling on the scale of assessments, continues to be responsible for more than 90 percent of arrears to the regular budget.

7. Regarding the effort that the Secretary-General has launched to seek efficiencies in the functioning of the Organization, the UN 80 initiative, the Group sees strong merit in the idea of optimizing the use of scarce resources as a measure to ensure enhanced effectiveness in delivering the mandates established by Member States.

8. In order to ensure the best outcome to this process, the Group is of the view that it requires regular, meaningful and constructive exchanges with its entire membership at the level of the General Assembly, while noting that the Fifth Committee remains the appropriate main committee of the General Assembly entrusted with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters. We would like to underscore as well the role of ACABQ in this regard.

9. The Group would also like to point out that any proposals aimed at achieving efficiencies by reducing duplications and redundancies across the UN system should not aim at dismantling the UN agencies/funds to the detriment of due support to Member States. Most of the UN agencies accumulate specific institutional know-how that must not be lost in the process of streamlining. In this regard, the Group underscores the vital role of the Regional Commissions as indispensable institutional assets with deep regional knowledge, policy integration functions, and proximity to country needs that need to be strengthened not diminished.

10. In this context, we emphasize that reforms that may be foreseen under the UN80 Initiative must preserve, first and foremost, the multilateral and inclusive nature of the United Nations, while also avoiding austerity-driven models that may ultimately compromise the effectiveness of our organization, particularly with regards to the implementation of its multiple mandates, as approved by Member States.

11. The Group also encourages a strategic approach to the structural reform based on evaluation of outcome of previous reforms in the past so as to identify the measures required to enhance the overall effectiveness throughout this process.

12. In conclusion, while we firmly support the notion of eliminating inefficiencies, we insist that this process requires consistent, permanent and transparent engagements with the membership. The Group of 77 and China looks forward to further periodic consultations and engagements with the Secretary General and reaffirms its commitment to engage constructively in this process and ensure that the Organization continues to serve its member states more effectively.

Thank you.

2. The Group 77 and China welcomes the adoption of the G77 proposed resolution by consensus.

3. At the outset, allow me to express our appreciation to you, Mr. Chair, and the other members of the Bureau, for their effective and inclusive leadership role. We also thank the Department of Global Communication, USG Ms. Melissa Fleming, and her team at the Department of Global Communication for the quality of the work accomplished during the informal sessions. The Group would like to thank Ms. Kulapa Suaprae, from the Permanent Mission of Thailand, for her excellent work of leading the Group of 77 and China in negotiating the draft resolutions on the Committee on Information.

4. Allow me to congratulate our distinguished delegates, and representatives of groups, on reaching a consensus on this year's resolutions. We thank them for their constructive engagement with the G77 and China with a sense of responsibility, hard work and spirit of compromise to ensure a smooth and a successful outcome of the forty-seventh annual session of the Committee on Information.

5. The Group notes with concern that the draft report of the Committee to the General Assembly at its eightieth session, including the chapter containing draft resolutions A and B, was not issued in all six official languages of the Organization despite the Committee having concluded its work on schedule. This highlights ongoing challenges to fully upholding multilingualism as a core value of the United Nations.

6. The negotiation of the draft resolutions led by the Group of 77 and China and adopted today in the Committee is an example of commitment to achieve a positive outcome for the work of the Organization. Member States can be capable of strengthening the aspects that unite us, creating balances and putting aside the elements that divide us, even under the most complex scenarios.

7. I thank the Department of Global Communications, all the members of CoI Secretariat, and the members of G77 and China Secretariat for providing an enabling environment and excellent support during the course of this session.

8. The Group of 77 and China's objective through the adoption of the resolution was to ensure renewed momentum and support for the Department of Global Communications and the work of the United Nations, and we believe we have made an important progress in this regard.

I thank you.

The Group thanks your Excellencies for preparing the zero draft of the Political Declaration on the Second World Summit for Social Development, which contains relevant elements that can be fruitful for our negotiations.

The Group considers the zero draft as a good basis for negotiations. The group emphasizes the objective and scope of the Summit to be focused on addressing gaps and recommitting to the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and its programme of action and its implementation, and to give momentum to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

30 years following the World Summit on Social Developments, some progress has been achieved while challenges and setbacks have impacted people around the globe in a disproportionate manner due to the persistence and emergence of global challenges as barriers to the attainment of social development manifested in poverty eradication, the promotion of productive employment and decent work for all, and social inclusion. Poverty remains the greatest global challenge. Likewise, the global context threatens to miss the target date of the Sustainable Development Goals, including its social dimension, with less than 5 years left for accelerated action. As such, concrete action is required at national and global levels to live up to the commitments made for the achievement of social development as well as for sustainable development, especially in developing countries.

Against this backdrop, the group wishes to express the following general remarks, which constitute a preliminary response to be consolidated further with concrete proposals on the political declaration's zero draft:

1. The G77 and China encourages the co-facilitators to ensure that the final political declaration builds a tangible bridge between the legacy of Copenhagen and the urgent delivery of the 2030 Agenda. Along with the recognition of structural global inequalities, and the repeated calls for a renewed multilateral commitment aligned with the long-standing advocacy for a more equitable international economic order.

2. Addressing today's social challenges requires strengthening international solidarity, building trust, and a renewed commitment to multilateral action on the social pillar of sustainable development. Such efforts must be guided by and uphold the vision set forth in the Copenhagen political declaration.

3. The zero draft should benefit from a more explicit focus on building resilient public institutions.

4. We must recommit ourselves to creating an economic, social, cultural, and technological enabling environment that will enable the achievement of social development in all its dimensions.

5. Reaffirming the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the commitments made in Copenhagen were made on the premise of harmony and equality within and among countries, with full respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as policy objectives, development priorities and religious and cultural diversity, and full respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms. These precepts must remain the guide to our commitments today and must be clearly reflected in the political declaration.

Your Excellencies,

The Group believes that certain elements should be added to the text or, if present, further strengthened, and as follows:

1. Although the text refers to the right to development under the human rights framework, it lacks a clear articulation of mechanisms to operationalize this right. Thus, the group calls for a standalone reaffirmation of the right to development, as recognized in the Declaration on the Right to Development, and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, as well as the outcomes of the Group of 77 and China.

2. The Group Underscores that the ODA remains one of the most concrete expressions of international solidarity and a key instrument to advance sustainable development, social progress, and the achievement of the social development goals, as per the commitments enunciated in the Copenhagen Declaration and its programme of action, particularly in developing countries.

3. Eradication of Poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme and multidimensional poverty, remains the greatest global challenge. The group also recommends a reference to some of the root causes of the feminization of poverty-particularly, the unequal distribution of unpaid care work, overrepresentation of women in the informal sector, and the persistent wage gap between men and women, and the required means to address those root causes.

4. The Group urges stronger language recognizing education as both a right and a key driver for social inclusion, mobility, and resilience. The Declaration should emphasize the provision of inclusive and equitable, quality primary and secondary education, as well as investment in STEM and vocational training.

5. While the zero draft acknowledges migrants' positive contributions, it lacks substantive commitments. The declaration should include clear commitments on the provisions to protect the rights of migrants, in particular migrant workers, and refugees. The group further notes the need to support host communities and refugees alike in the spirit of leaving no one behind. The Group will also provide further detailed input in this domain.

6. The Group calls for specific action in the political declaration to end unilateral coercive measures, which undermine development efforts in many parts of the world.

7. The Declaration should strengthen its approach to informal employment by committing to strategies for the transition from the informal to the formal economy, ensuring income protection, social security coverage, and equal pay for work of equal value. These steps are crucial for building resilience and advancing SDG 8.

8. The zero draft reflects that international trade has expanded and global unemployment reached historic lows. However, challenges persist in ensuring a rule-based, non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable and transparent multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization at its core, with access to markets and equitable integration of developing countries in the global economy. This can only be achieved through the removal of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, regional and international economic integration, and respect for a rule-based multilateral trading system. Strengthened commitments to support the Global South are required, including through enhancing trade partnerships that enable inclusive growth, and sustainable development for all peoples to leave no one behind.

9. The group requests a particular emphasis on National ownership of development strategies, aligned with country-specific priorities, cultural contexts, and democratic institutions. This reflects the Copenhagen Declaration's core commitment to people-centered development, where policies are shaped by local needs and capacities, and implemented through inclusive, participatory processes that respect national sovereignty and foster sustainable outcomes.

10. Under the section harnessing technology and artificial intelligence to advance social development, the Group seeks stronger commitment to closing the digital divides within and among countries, including by advancing an equitable and inclusive digital environment for all. This requires concrete support for developing countries through increased financial resources, capacity-building, and technology transfer, alongside the development of governing frameworks that ensure digital equality, data protection, and responsible use of AI, with a focus on investing in digital public infrastructure.

11. The Copenhagen declaration reaffirmed the essential interdependence between social development, peace and security, and respect for human rights. This interdependence remains valid, Therefore, the group supports the zero draft in underscoring this element and in highlighting the need to ensure human dignity and inclusion, as essential for the achievement of social development.

12. The Group recognizes the severe difficulties faced by countries under colonial rule, impeding the enjoyment of the right of peoples to self-determination, and the right to development, and thereby impeding the attainment of social and sustainable development. We reaffirm, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the need to respect the territorial integrity and political independence of States.

13. It is important for the text to adopt a life-course perspective, including references to population ageing and the need for specific policies for older persons, adapted to national contexts and ensuring the capitalisation on the demographic dividends for social development purposes.

14. The Group calls for a greater focus on persons with disabilities in the zero draft of the Political Declaration, emphasizing the need for strengthened inclusion of persons with disabilities across all dimensions of social development.

15. Furthermore, the text should reinforce the recognition that women, particularly in contexts of poverty and vulnerability, represent a significant share of the informal labor force, facing precarious working conditions, lack of social protection, and wage inequality.

16. The Group urges the inclusion of clear language on timely, equitable, and unhindered access to safe, affordable, effective, and quality medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and other health technologies and support to local production of medicines and other health technologies. These elements are essential to realizing the right to the highest attainable standard of health. They must be explicitly reflected in the commitments, with more focus on strengthening health infrastructures.

17. Under the item Social Integration, the Group would like to include to the current listing, people of African descent, homeless people, and residents of informal settlements.

18. While we welcome the recognition of the need to combat racism, discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, the current language falls short of the commitments made in the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration and is not in line with the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The Group wishes to see a strengthened reference to racism, making it action-oriented. We already requested the recognition of the existence of structural and system racism as constituting an impediment to social development.

19. The zero draft is missing a reference to desertification, which was referred to in bullet (f) of commitment 7 of the Copenhagen declaration. This could be added on page 8 under the title "climate resilience, just transition and DDR". We also have to be mindful not to dilute commitments made under any of the relevant processes guiding international action in these domains.

20. On Review and Follow-up, we thank the co-facilitators for proposing a mechanism for review of implementation and follow-up. The format and process are under further consideration within the group. Meanwhile, the group reiterates its emphasis on the role and mandate of the CSocD in the follow-up and review of implementation of the social development agenda. Accordingly, its role should be strengthened and reinvigorated following the 2nd World Summit for Social Development.

Finally, on the matter of the timeline, while the Group acknowledges and appreciates the co-facilitators' efforts to keep the process on track, we note that, given the Group's size and the significance of this document to our priorities, some flexibility may be necessary. This is particularly important in light of the overlapping processes currently underway.

We hope the co-facilitators will understand this need and accommodate it where possible.

Excellencies, please be assured of our constructive and meaningful engagement in this process.

I thank you.