Mr. President,

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

1. At the outset, we would like to commend the vigorous efforts of H.E. Ambassador Octavio Errázuriz, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations, by his leadership in conducting the informal consultations on the review of the implementation of resolution 61/16 of the General Assembly on the strengthening of the Economic and Social Council.

2. Having considered the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report presented by the facilitator, the Group of 77 and China would like to stress in particular the relevance of ensuring and strengthen a high-level participation in the Spring Meetings of ECOSOC, as well as requesting the ECOSOC to have a closer relationship with funds and programmes of the United Nations.

3. Moreover, like was emphasized in the report, it is important to highlight the importance of the Chief Executives Board (CEB) as the designated authority for promoting coherence within the UN system and wider. In that sense, the G77 and China wants to underline the relevance of improving the transparency and accountability of the CEB.

4. Furthermore, we welcome the call for further review the implementation of resolution 61/16 at the 67th session of the General Assembly. In this regard we consider that several issues could be explored, such as the establishment of a mechanism of follow-up for the topics discussed in the Development Cooperation Forum, or the possibility of having a negotiated outcome, in order to make DCF more useful to developing countries.

I thank you Mr President.