Mr. Vice President,

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

2. At the outset, I wish to thank you and the secretariat for convening and organizing this important meeting to discuss the role of the UN development system in middle-income countries.

3. The Group wishes to express our full support for this meeting which is a result of the General Assembly resolution 70/215 entitled "Development cooperation with middle-income countries". We take note of the paper commissioned by UNDESA for this meeting.

Mr. Vice President,

4. To implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is of utmost importance to ensure that the United Nations development system (UNDS) responds to different national realities, capacities and levels of development in developing countries, in particular Africa, the least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small-island developing States (SIDS), countries in conflict and post-conflict situations, countries affected by conflict and countries and people living under foreign occupation. We further recognize that middle-income countries still face significant challenges to achieve sustainable development. Therefore, this meeting comes at an opportune time to help identify shortcomings and action priorities of the UNDS to respond to existing and emerging challenges of middle-income countries.

5. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reaffirms the overarching objective of eradication of poverty "in all its forms and dimensions" which remains the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development in order to truly leave no one behind.

6. We reemphasise the need to address poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon. We note that national averages do not always reflect the actual particularities and development needs of countries. In this regard, we reiterate our call upon the United Nations system, in consultation with the international financial institutions (IFIs) to develop transparent measurements of progress on sustainable development that go beyond per capita income, building on existing initiatives as appropriate. These should recognize the multidimensional nature of poverty and the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of domestic output and structural gaps at all levels.

7. Despite notable reductions in poverty, middle-income countries are still home to 73 per cent of the world's people living in poverty and inequalities and gaps still remain. It is therefore important that the ongoing ECOSOC Dialogue on the longer-term positioning of the UN development system in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development continues discussing proposals on how the UNDS could improve its support to different country contexts, including how to provide efficient, effective, more coordinated and better and focused support to middle-income countries.

8. We hope that this meeting will further help identifying ways and means to ensure that the diverse and specific development needs of middle-income countries are appropriately considered and addressed, in a tailored fashion, in their relevant strategies and policies, with a view to promoting a coherent and comprehensive approach towards individual countries.

9. To this end, the Group of 77 and China reaffirm our commitments to constructively engage in the ECOSOC Dialogue and the deliberations on development cooperation for middle-income countries to ensure that no country is left behind in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

I thank you.