Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

I would like to start by thanking you, thank the bureau and to thank each one of the respective teams for all the efforts you have made throughout the long effort which we began in New York several months ago to reach today.

I would like to express special thanks to the Government and people of Turkey for their great hospitality, for their generous offer of this historic city of Istanbul as the venue of this Conference and for all their hospitality.

This was a very hard process of negotiations at times, and for that reason we are pleased to have reached an agreement on the Programme of Action. While this agreement does not entirely reflect the aspirations with which the G-77 and China, including the Least Developed Countries, began many months ago in this process of negotiations, we are nevertheless pleased that we maintained some of the commitments which are still feasible in the Brussels Programme of Action.

Also, in implementing the Istanbul Programme of Action, the role is crucial for the developed countries as "development partners", the role which they play for investment in physical and human capital, in reducing poverty and in the promotion of growth and sustainable development. The United Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, other multilateral institutions and regional development banks are also called upon to support the LDCs in these efforts.

At the same time, as developing countries we feel proud of being able to support, through South-South Cooperation, the Istanbul Programme of Action. In this way, we are maintaining the specific identity of cooperation among developing countries and preserving its logic based on solidarity and respect for national development priorities in every country. We know that this new commitment to the Least Developed Countries over the next ten years was an enormous added value. For that reason, we look forward to the promotion of South-South cooperation within our own capacities and based on solidarity, in order to give added value to the Istanbul Programme of Action.

In particular, we would like to note, as the Secretary General said, that partnership for development is not a matter of charity. It is investing to improve the quality of life of human beings and to ensure a prosperous world for coming generations. If we achieve that objective, then we shall be all winning together.

Mr. President,

Once again, we address to you and to all your Bureau our sincerest congratulations. We also wish to thank the delegation of Nepal for its role as coordinator of the G77 and China, and in particular to Ambassador Gyan Acharya and Minister Shanker Bairagi for their untiring efforts. We also extend our appreciation to all other negotiating delegations.

I thank you.