Madame President,

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

At the outset, I would like to thank you, Madame President, for the convening of this High-Level Meeting as requested by Resolution 72/230 on "Development cooperation with middle-income countries".

Madame President,

Poverty eradication in all its forms and dimensions is the overarching goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the international community needs to work tirelessly for achieving this goal, as well as the full implementation of the agenda in a balanced and integrated manner building on the achievements and lessons learned of the MDGs and seeking to address their unfinished business.

Despite notable reductions in poverty, we note with concern that middle-income countries are still home to most of the world's people living in poverty and inequalities and gaps still remain. They continue to face significant challenges to achieve sustainable development.
 
As such, there is an urgent need to identify 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. In this context, the UN development system must improve its support to different country contexts, including how to provide efficient, effective, more coordinated and better and focused support to middle-income countries.

Madame President,

In order to ensure that achievements made to date by middle-income countries are sustained, the efforts to address their ongoing challenges should be strengthened through the exchange of experiences, improved coordination and better and focused support from the United Nations development system, the international financial institutions, regional organizations and other stakeholders.

Official development assistance and other concessional finance are still important for a number of these countries and have a role to play for targeted results, taking into account their specific needs. In this regard, it is urgent to make all institutional arrangements necessary to support middle-income countries within the United Nations system and its respective mandates, in particular through a comprehensive UN system-wide and long-term strategy aimed at facilitating sustainable development cooperation and coordinated support towards MICs.

Madame President,

We invite the United Nations system, in consultation with the international financial institutions, 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. In this regard, we underscore the importance of achieving concrete progress in this issue.

I thank you.