His Highness the Emir of the State of Qatar,
President of the General Assembly,
Secretary-General,
Heads of State and Governments,
Ministers,
Distinguished Delegates,

Let me begin by expressing the deepest sympathies of the Group of 77 and China to the Government and people of India on the tragic events in Mumbai a few days ago. Once again terrorists have destroyed lives, disrupted economic and social activities and touched lives in a number of countries simultaneously. We must find space in the outcome of this conference to express our abhorrence of terrorism and our combined resolve to eliminate it in all its forms and manifestations everywhere.

It is a privilege to again present a statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China in this wonderful city of Doha. It was here in this city, at last April's High Level Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade, I charged, that as a global community we faced a range of fundamental challenges which demanded a global response. I challenged the leaders assembled to transform this Doha international Conference 'into a conference on the major systemic challenges we have as an international community, or at a minimum, put in place a process for a major "Bretton Woods" type conference to address in an integrated and consistent manner, the range of fundamental challenges facing us as a global economy'.

Distinguished Delegates,

I had greatly underestimated the perilous state of the world economy and where we would be at this time. We are in fact, in the deepest and widest financial and economic crisis since the great depression. This, in spite of the fact that some of the major economies have already injected hundreds of billions of United States Dollars to battle the crisis in their national economies; invested extensively and directly in major businesses such as investment and commercial banks; insurance companies and housing corporations; have jettisoned the free and unregulated market philosophy which drove our economic behaviour  over the last thirty (30) years and have taken measures to strengthen their domestic regulatory systems.

We have witnessed lately an effort to coordinate action, albeit among a relatively small number of countries. In this regard, the Group of 20 meeting convened in Washington and the UN Secretary-General initiative here in Doha Friday last represent a movement in the right direction but the breadth of the crisis demands a global and inclusive response. We have the opportunity here in Doha to begin that global response.

Excellencies,

Permit me to briefly review the performance of the various key groups in the six leading action areas of the Monterrey Consensus adopted in 2002. The situation might be summarized as follows:

- Developing countries, as a group have reformed and liberalized significantly their macro-economic, monetary, investment and trade policies and upgraded their physical and decision making infrastructure; strengthened their fiscal management and legal systems to deal with matters such as corruption and money laundering; have mobilized significant domestic resources. Many had to invest a significant portion of the resources mobilized to service and reduce debt and in assets in developed countries, to protect their currencies in an unsupportive and unstable international monetary and financial environment;
- Developed countries increased their overall ODA, including resources for debt relief, in real terms and as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) in the first three years after the Monterrey Conference. Total ODA, including resources for debt relief has been decreasing in absolute terms and as a percentage of GNI since 2005. The G-8 countries have met about one-half their pledge in 2005 of USD 50 billion per year by 2010;
- The effort of the international community to reform the global trading system so that it can function as an effective engine of growth and provide financing for development has stalled;
- The reform of the global governance structure and the coherence required for the policies of various international bodies to complement and facilitate the policy reforms by the developing countries  has not occurred;
- The reform demanded in the international financial infrastructure, to among other things, increase the voice and participation of developing countries has not occurred. The small adjustment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier this year, is a nod in the right direction.

Distinguished Delegates,

Our collective failure to address the systemic issues in the Monterrey Conference has contributed in no small way to the current international financial and economic crises.

As we now seek to address the areas of underperformance in our Monterrey commitments and to reinforce the areas of positive achievement and planned actions we must remain seized that there are some new challenges and some challenges which, whilst obvious in 2002 we did not appreciate. These challenges have now manifested themselves in full, with great significance for development especially in Africa, Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, middle income countries and economies recovering from conflicts and natural disasters. In addition to the global financial and economic crises which were highlighted earlier, we must be concerned at the agricultural and food crisis and the severe volatility in energy and other commodity markets. Also, while not a new issue, our appreciation of the reality of the extent climate change and the dire implications has increased markedly since we adopted the Monterrey Consensus. The reality is that climate change will have devastating effects on current and future development efforts. It will require large amounts of financial and technical resources to mitigate and to adjust to it. Climate change must be addressed urgently but with new resources in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Fortunately a process is in train, based on decisions taken in Bali, Indonesia this time last year. Leaders must direct that that be completed with the required level of ambition on schedule in December 2009.

Excellencies,

In the judgment of the G77 and China we must make major decisions and initiate some strong concrete actions at this conference. There are unmistakable, clear and present dangers if we do not act decisively in spite of the current global financial crisis.

We must:

1. Reaffirm our decisions in the Monterrey Consensus and recommit to their immediate implementation. We cannot relinquish any gains made in international cooperation and the global partnership for development.

2. Agree to a process for the fundamental reform and restructuring of the Post World War II global economic governance system. The reformed system must reflect the vastly changed geographical and economic structure of the world and the best principles of democracy;

3. Decide on an inclusive process to monitor and ensure timely implementation of the decisions we make here in Doha and those made in Monterrey;

4. Rekindle the spirit of the partnership, cooperation and shared responsibility we generated in Monterrey. There are strong signs that full responsibility is being shifted to developing countries. The discussions in this preparatory process and the other processes in recent years indicate a strong tendency for the international community simply to dictate what the developing countries should do and how and where they should do them. We are fast returning to the situation when a few leaders determine the global priorities. The current globalized world with the level and nature of communication and information and movement of people will not allow this to continue indefinitely;

5. Make determined effort to deliver on longstanding commitments, many reaffirmed in Monterrey. High on the priority list must be the achievement of the 0.7% ODA commitment where we are just above a third of the way and heading in the wrong direction and the completion of the focus on the Doha Development Round of negotiations with the focus on the development dimensions which has now stalled.

Excellencies,

Our tasks are clear. The number of human beings living in poverty is again on the rise; achievement of the internationally agreed development goals including the MDG's is looking much less likely than in 2005; and hope for a comprehensive and meaningful attack on climate change is receding by the day.

We must confront these realities.

I thank you.