Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

1. On behalf of the Group of 77 and China, it is a privilege and pleasure to address the sixteenth session of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation. Allow me first, however, to congratulate you Mr. President as well as the other members of the Bureau for your election to lead our Committee. I would like to convey to you and the members of the bureau the full support of the Group of 77 and China in leading our deliberations to a successful conclusion. I would also like to congratulate His Excellency Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar, for his excellent leadership of the Committee, over the past 2 years.

2. The Group would like to convey particular thanks to the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation for preparing the relevant documentation for this session. We welcome the Nairobi outcome document of the High-level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation which was held from 1 to 3 December 2009 in Nairobi, and look forward to its effective implementation.

3. We have all recognized the importance and the contribution of South-South cooperation in meeting important development challenges and objectives during these past decades. We have also agreed that in order to realize the great potential of South-South cooperation, adequate support from our developed partners, the UN, programmes and specialized agencies including through triangular cooperation is imperative.

4. We emphasize that South-South cooperation should be based on the basic principles of complete equality, mutual respect, mutual benefit, a strong, genuine, broad-based partnership and solidarity, and respect national sovereignty in the context of shared responsibility.

5. As we are all aware, South-South cooperation is an expression of South-South solidarity that has proven its relevance by a rapid growth. It is a rising and dynamic phenomenon, an important process that is vital to confront the challenges faced by the developing countries, making an increasingly important contribution to their development. In the light of the processes of globalization and deepening interdependence among economies, the intensification of South-South cooperation has become a major imperative both as a development strategy and as a means for ensuring that developing countries participate fully in international economic relations, which is a key objective of the United Nations.

6. It is also clear that South-South cooperation cannot, and should not, replace North-South cooperation. As our Group has emphasized on many occasions, the North has an obligation, both in their own national interest, but also in the interest of global harmony and equity and development, to fulfill their commitments through North-South cooperation. South-South cooperation, whether through the UN - bilaterally or regionally - is not intended to replace cooperation with the North. The premises are different, the conditions are different, and the expectations are different, which must be reflected accordingly. In this context, it is important to note that South-South cooperation is not aid. It is an expression of South-South cooperation based on true partnership for mutual development.

7. The Group of 77 reiterates the call from the Nairobi outcome document for the UN funds and programmes as well as the specialized agencies to take concrete measures to mainstream support for South-South cooperation including triangular cooperation to help developing countries, at their request and with their ownership and leadership, to develop capacities to maximize the benefits and impact of South-South and triangular cooperation. We strongly believe that the UN has an important role in supporting South-South cooperation in order for developing countries to effectively participate in the world economy and have a fair share of the benefits of globalization.

8. We believe that South-South cooperation should be explicitly incorporated into the operational programmes of all relevant bodies of the United Nations system and there should be coordination among various entities on the most effective way to support South-South cooperation. In this context, we welcome the recent initiatives undertaken by various UN bodies to establish new units and work programmes to support and promote South-South cooperation and urge other entities of the United Nations system to intensify their efforts to include South-South cooperation in the mainstream of their activities.

9. We call on the UN, funds and programmes as well as the specialized agencies to continue to enhance the capacities of developing countries to develop and formulate development cooperation programmes, strengthen the capacities of regional and sub-regional organizations and conduct research to identify areas where support for South-South cooperation will have the greatest impact. We also call on the UN regional commissions to play a catalytic role in promoting South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation through strengthening their technical, policy and research support for countries of their regions.

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
 
10. We believe that South-South cooperation could play a major role in the global effort to eradicate poverty and stimulate economic growth. It is a vital means of attracting trade and investments flows as well as promoting increased international, financial and technical cooperation. Strong partnerships among countries of the South supported by developed countries and the UN system will help unlock the economic potential of the developing countries and benefit the entire international community.

11. It is important, in this context, that the development pillar of the UN system expands, budget-wise, and maintains a strong presence in the field in as many developing countries as possible, including middle-income ones, in order to foster an agile and functional network of Resident Coordinators capable of providing direct support to South-South and triangular projects, making more extensive use of the institutional capacities, public policies, procurement and concrete experiences originating in developing countries that could prove to be effective, useful and practical in other developing countries. This means UN country offices should be encouraged to liaise with each other directly in order to support plurinational projects in different South-South and triangular configurations.

12. In this context, the Nairobi outcome document constitutes a fundamental mandate for action and its detailed recommendations make specific and general calls for support for South-South cooperation by the UN system. To this end, we hope that this session will identify the means of its implementation, particularly:

- The preparation of a proposal for a specific framework of operational guidelines for relevant United Nations organizations and agencies, in accordance with their respective mandates, with a view to achieving an improvement in their overall response to South-South cooperation mandates;

- A review of the existing United Nations institutional arrangements which provide the bases for the system's activities in support of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation, with recommendations in preparation of the specific framework of operational guidelines.

Thank you.