Mr. President,

The Plurinational State of Bolivia has the honor to intervene on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

At the outset, I would like to thank you for convening this organizational meeting for the Eighteenth Session of the High Level Committee on South-South Cooperation.

The Group would like to reaffirm its view of South-South cooperation as a manifestation of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South that contributes to their national well-being, national and collective self-reliance and the attainment of internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

And in this regard, as mentioned in the Nairobi Outcome document, South-South cooperation and its agenda have to be set by countries of the South and should continue to be guided by the principles of respect for national sovereignty, national ownership and independence, equality, non-conditionality, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefit. At the same time, we reiterate that South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to, North-South cooperation.

On the matter of the discussion theme for the High Level Committee, presently set as "The contribution of the South-South Cooperation and the triangular cooperation to the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda", the G77 and China, would like to propose that instead of focusing on what the South is expected to do, for implementing the post 2015 development agenda, which is yet to be decided, it is time that given that the Committee is meeting in the context of the UN, we focus on how to further strengthen the UN System to promote South-South cooperation in concrete terms.

In that sense, the G77 would like to propose a more appropriate and relevant theme for our discussions at the 18th Session of the HLC, which is as follows: "Contributions and strategy of the UN development system to promote and strengthen the South-South Cooperation".

Given that this call is coming from the entire South, we hope that this would merit consideration by the President and Bureau of the HLC.

In addition, the Group would like to highlight the issue of present clashing set of dates for the eighteenth session of the HLC with dates of the High level General Assembly Event of PGA on "Contributions of North-South, South-South Triangular Cooperation and ICT for Development to the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda". Which is coincidently the same theme as the 18th Session. It is therefore better that the HLC meeting dates either precede or follow the PGA's thematic debate.

Also since today's discussion is in the context of organizational matters, the Group would like to request the inclusion of the following agenda items for discussion at the HLC: a) updated information on the steps taken on the implementation of the recommendations of the Joint Inspection Unit Report; b) steps taken on implementing the call for the strengthening of the UN Office of South-South Cooperation with adequate human and financial resources.

The Group would also like to recall that in the last meeting convened by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation to seek member states views for UN Secretary General´s Report, which figures as an agenda item for the 18th HLC, we were given to understand that a session would precede the HLC to brief member states on the updated status of the draft report and its broad contours. We are still awaiting any information on that proposed briefing.

Thank you.