Mr. Chairman,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

2. On behalf of the Group, I would like to seize this opportunity to congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, on your election as Chair of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee during the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly. We also extend our congratulations to the members of the Bureau.

3. The Group of 77 and China congratulates H.E Mr. Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, on his appointment as Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information and wishes him great success in this important endeavor. During his tenure, Mr. Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal can always count on the full support and cooperation of the Group of 77 and China. We further thank him for the comprehensive and informative presentation on the activities and strategies of the Department of Public Information (DPI).

4. The Group of 77 and China has taken note of the reports of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Mr. Chairman,

5. The Group of 77 and China would like to stress the importance of the cooperation between the Department and the Committee on Information and its fruitful results and, therefore, calls for its continued strengthening in order to promote the principles and purposes of the United Nations.

6. It goes without saying that the United Nations has made an important progress in the field of public information and we are thankful to the contribution made by the DPI. However, due to the lack of resources and technical means, many developing countries are still facing challenges to access information regarding the United Nations activities. The Department has, therefore, a challenging task to reach out to the widest possible audience and to project important accomplishments of the United Nations world over in order to promote greater understanding and goodwill between all nations.

Mr. Chairman,

7. The G77 and China continues to support the work of the Department of Public Information in promoting and advancing the work of the Organization through its continued campaigns on issues of great importance to the international community.

8. In this regard, the Group would like to emphasize the importance of the DPI's Special Information Programme on the Question of Palestine in raising the international community's awareness and in supporting the efforts to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, in accordance with international law and United Nations resolutions. The Group of 77 and China congratulates the Department of Public Information for updating the permanent exhibit on the question of Palestine at the United Nations and calls for its reinforcement.

9. The Group of 77 and China would like also to encourage the DPI, together with the Special Committee on Decolonization to explore possibilities around raising awareness during 2011 - 2020 that has been declared by the UN as the Third Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism.

10. The Group has noted with satisfaction the efforts aiming at increasing visibility of the General Assembly and enhancing more contact with media, and requests the Department to keep taking appropriate measures to increase and to more enhance world public awareness of the work of the General Assembly, including through facilitating and encouraging the media's reporting of its work.

Mr. Chairman,

11. The Group of 77 and China attaches great importance to the work of the Network of United Nations Information Centers (UNICs). In this regard, the Group reiterates its concerns with regard to the challenges that those centers are still facing in terms of ageing office automation equipment and the lack of a cost-effective, enterprise-level system to access tools, such as the Organization's Intranet and e-mail system, available at Headquarters. We, therefore, urge once again that all possible measures be taken to strengthen the UNICs.

12. Our Group welcomes the support by some developing Member States to offer rent-free premises to host the UNICs while bearing in mind that such support should not be a substitute for the full allocation of financial resources for the Information Centers in the context of the programme budget of the United Nations. The Group of 77 and China wishes to underline that any decision pertaining to reorganizing the UNICs must be made in close consultation with the host countries, and take into account the geographical, linguistic and technological characters and needs of different regions.

13. In this regard, while reiterating its support for the creation of the United Nations Information Centre in Luanda, in conformity with the General Assembly resolution A/RES/64/243, the group of 77 and China urges the Secretariat to take the necessary measures in order to ensure a prompt establishment of this Centre and to report to the Committee on the progress made, during its next session.

Mr. Chairman,

14. There is no doubt that the use of Internet and the United Nations websites has increased significantly in recent years, mainly in countries where the United Nations official languages are used. However, despite the efforts made by the DPI to improve the multilingual contents of the UN website, the disparity among the use of the official languages has continued to deepen, including the issuance of daily press releases. In this regard, the Group welcomes that the draft resolution under consideration requests the Department of Public Information to design a strategy to deliver daily press releases in all six official languages through creative schemes, within existing resources and in accordance with the relevant General Assembly resolutions, and to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its thirty-fifth session.

15. At the same time, the Group emphasizes the importance of the traditional media, including both radio and prints, which continues to be the primary means of communication in many developing countries, in disseminating the main messages of the United Nations.

16. The Group stresses once again the importance of the close cooperation between the DPI and the other Departments, in particular the Departments of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and Field Support (DFS). In this context, the Group welcomes the availability of the United Nations peacekeeping website in all six official languages.

17. In conclusion, the Group of 77 and China would like to outline the need to improve the operations and services of the Dag Hammarskjold Library, and calls, in this vein, for the establishment of an institutional digital repository to preserve and provide access to the Organization's digital resources as well as an improved and wider access to relevant external electronic resources.

I thank you.