Mr. President,

1. I have the honour to introduce, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, the draft resolution on "Implementing the smooth transition strategy for countries graduating from the list of least developed countries" contained in document A/65/L.66 rev.1, under Agenda item 23.

Mr. President,

2. The graduation from the least developed country category reflects a country's success in its development and in its ability to achieve a transformation of its economy.

Nevertheless, in spite of its graduation, these countries are still facing unique challenges. In that regard, the support of development partners -in the form of trade preferences, official development assistance and technical cooperation- play a critical role in achieving the category of middle income countries.

3. The G77 and China stresses the need for a smooth transition strategy for countries graduated from the list of least developed countries. A sudden withdrawal of support to a graduated country by its bilateral and multilateral development partners could have adverse effects, interrupting or reversing some of the development progress already achieved.

4. Moreover, we believe that while the success of smooth transition strategies will depend on the cooperation between the least developed country and the international community, the graduated country itself should play the central role in the formulation and implementation of its transition strategies.

5. For those reasons, we would like to reiterate the importance of ensuring that the graduation of a country from least developed country status should not cause disruption in the development progress that a country has achieved.

Mr. President,

6. The G77 and China also reiterates a call for the full, timely and effective implementation of the goals and targets of the Istanbul Programme of Action for the least developed countries for the decade 2011-2020, in which member states committed to assisting the LDCs with an overarching goal of enabling half of them to meet the criteria for graduation by 2020.

Mr. President,

7. On behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I wish to thank all those Member States who have co-sponsored this important resolution. We hope that the General Assembly will adopt this draft resolution by consensus.

I thank you Mr President.