STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY H.E. AMBASSADOR MOHAMED EDRESS, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF EGYPT TO THE UNITED NATIONS, CHAIR OF THE GROUP OF 77, AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE WORK OF THE SECOND COMMITTEE DURING THE MAIN PART OF THE 73RD SESSION OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY (New York, 3 December 2018)

Mr. Chairman,

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

At the outset, I would like to express my appreciation for you, as chair of the Second Committee, the Bureau members and the secretariat for all the efforts exerted to ensure the smooth and successful deliberations of the Committee. Today, with the conclusion of the Committee's work, I would like to deliver some brief remarks.

During this session, the Group of 77 has submitted many resolutions for consideration by the Committee under its various agenda items with a view to ensure substantive deliberations by the General Assembly on global financial, economic, and development issues.

The Group has engaged constructively, and in good faith, throughout the negotiations with a view to achieve the consensus on the actions needed to address global economic and development challenges. The Group has positively considered all proposals suggested by our partners on the basis of their relevance to the issued being considered. At times, we took on board such proposals even when they went against the Group's preferred positions when we deemed that necessary and desirable to guarantee consensus and chart a positive way forward.

Throughout the course of the Committee's work, the Group upheld its obligations, and responsibility in preserving the work of Second Committee and its established working methods. The Group showed flexibility to engage on new proposals made by partners, engaged on different language despite late submission, maintained communication channels during the informal and offline discussions, restrained as much as possible from breaking silence procedure, and most importantly, accepted to revert to agreed language where consensus on new language could not be reached.

Mr. Chairman,

Efforts to draft and negotiate our Second Committee resolutions are not an end in themselves. They serve an objective. Lest we forget that our mission here is to strengthen international cooperation, its norms and rules as well as promote it on the ground for the peace and prosperity of all nations.

Our understanding is that efforts serving this mission have to be undertaken in a cumulative perspective. We should build on what we agreed on previously. Unfortunately, during the course of negotiations that have just ended, we noticed attempts to rescind what we have subscribed to in the recent past. Our vision is that for this Committee, and for the United Nations to pursue their mission, our focus should be on providing and reinforcing the means to implement what we have agreed to rather than renegotiating it. This is the only path that would allow us to collectively achieve our overarching goals and commitments.

Mr. Chairman,

In this regard, the core of the 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Paris Agreement, and the many other relevant instruments adopted recently, is to ensure inclusiveness for the achievement of the ambitious goals at the international, regional, and country levels in order to leave no country and no one behind.

The concept of 'leaving no country' and 'leaving no one' behind are complementary to each other. They are, by no means, contradictory or mutually exclusive concepts. In order to ensure that 'no one' is left behind, we should ensure that countries are properly assisted to safeguard that no individual among their citizens is left behind. Countries are entrusted to formulate policies, enforce laws, and create the enabling environment to guarantee that inclusiveness of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for all segments of society and to 'leave no one behind.' Without enabling countries, and empowering them to implement the 2030 Agenda, the ideal of 'leaving no one behind" will face considerable challenges.

Mr. Chairman,

The Group would like to lend its strong support and continued engagement to efforts aiming at improving our work. We have supported your efforts, and will continue to do so throughout this session and future sessions of the Committee's work.

I would like to reiterate that the Group of 77 is committed to multilateralism, and we will continue to do our best endeavors to safeguard consensus by the international community on actions needed to transform our world into a prosperous world for present and future generations.

Finally, I would like to end my statement by expressing our immense gratitude to all our coordinators and facilitators for the excellent standards of professionalism and commitment they have shown over the past weeks in support of the Committee's work. It is in this dedication, of hard work, and long hours kept, that we remain confident that the work of the United Nations in the economic, financial and sustainable development issues at large remains at the heart of a relevant multilateralism for all our countries and peoples.

Thank you.