Mr. Chair,
Distinguished delegates,

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

At the outset, allow me to extend to you, Mr. Chair, congratulation on your assumption as Chair of the Second Committee, and through you to extend our thanks and appreciation to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Muhammad Abdul Muhith, for his hard work, leadership and stewardship during the main segment of the Committee's work in the 79th session.

We also applaud your predecessor and the Bureau for the very successful and timely conclusion of the Committee's work during the main segment. This demonstrates that the Committee has been effective in implementing its methods of work and that the current dynamic is yielding positive results for the global development agenda.

The Group thanks the Bureau for preparing and sharing in advance the informal paper, which contains an overview of the Committee's work during this session, its existing methods of work, reflects recent practices and a list of proposals that were made in previous informal dialogues but did not enjoy consensus.

In this regard, the Group of 77 and China appreciates this initiative to try to advance the revitalization process, and we acknowledge the efforts extended by the Second Committee Bureau, as well as the progress made in advancing this agenda item.

Over the past five years the Committee has been operating under some exceptional circumstances first beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic and currently under the severe austerity and liquidity problems. However, throughout these times the Committee has always been able to make the appropriate adjustments to successfully fulfil its work in a timely and efficient manner, as has been reflected in the paper presented.

Additionally, the Group would like also to highlight that throughout these times the Committee was able to maintain the adopted by consensus the majority of its resolutions, which undoubtedly confirms that the Committee is improving its work and preserving the solidarity and multilateralism that should guide our discussions.

The Group accords a high level of importance to the revitalization of the work of the Second Committee as we believe that every effort to improve the work of the Committee is vitally important, especially as we near 2030. However, within the context of the current dynamics where the development pillar is at stake, multilateralism needs to be enhanced and the uncertainty around UN80 initiative, these coupled with the fact that we are currently in the middle of negotiating documents for several critically important processes, such as FfD4, HLPF, follow-up on the Summit of the Future, AI and others. The Group believes that the focus should be to afford the incoming Chair and Bureau for the 80th session to work closely with delegations to make small tweaks to ensure the Committee's work and programme results in a successful session.

In this regard, the Group is of the view that there is no need to take a decision on revitalization this session, as it is important to take into account the pressing ongoing processes, which demands our immediate attention within the very limited time remaining in the 79th Session. The Group once again requests that this year's decision be postponed to a future session.

The Group takes this opportunity to reiterate some of its previously expressed key positions as follows:

- The Group reaffirms of the inalienable right of all delegations to table new proposals for introduction of additional agenda items, or new draft resolutions under existing items;
- The Group underscores that the relevance of agenda items and resolutions, as well as their periodicity, should be carefully taken into consideration, on a case-by-case basis, with clear reasoning and accurate argument, and always based on the consent of the proponents of the draft resolutions;
- With respect to the proposal for co-drafting of resolutions, the G77 and China comprises a highly diversified group of countries with different developmental needs. For its part, the Group already shares the transformative ideals of co-authorship. Notwithstanding this, the Group is fully cognizant of the technicalities and complexities such an approach will incur for a group like ours. The Group of 77 and China is, therefore, not in a position to support such a proposal but will endeavor to continue consultations within the Group with a view to engaging on this matter in the future;
- The Group continues to reject the changes proposed to the specific resolutions mentioned under the section of ¨draft proposals¨ in keeping with our points raised in previous dialogues on this matter and it is not in a position to agree on any new change proposed; and
- Under the proposals for reporting, the Group continues to be concerned with the proposals to have joint reporting, merging and eliminating reports, as these reports are extremely important to the continuity of the work of the Committee and serve to form the basis upon which we are able to assess progress and address gaps and challenges in the various topic areas of the Committee. In addition, due to the already limited word capacity allocated for the reports it would be extremely unproductive to crowd reports even on sub-items under the same cluster

Mr. Chair,

In concluding, the Group of 77 and China reiterates its commitment to engaging constructively on this agenda item in future sessions, with a view to ensuring that the work of the Second Committee is conducted in a manner that gives greater impact and relevance to its intended purpose.

Thank you.