Mr. Chair,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on agenda item 29 entitled "People's empowerment and development and a peace-centric development model", on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

2. At the outset, I would like to thank the Second Committee Bureau and members of the General Committee for drawing our attention to this important issue of our contemporary world. We are meeting at a time when the world is poised with myriads of challenges at national, regional and global level. These challenges are causing havoc for governments, for civil societies and most importantly for individual people.

Mr. Chairman,

3. It goes without saying, people will be the most affected by these challenges and remain at the center of this entire plethora. Therefore, people's empowerment is, indeed, essential not only to overcome all these challenges but also to achieving development. Moreover, it is vital to flag the fact that even when economic growth is substantially high, in many cases it is not necessarily translated into people's development and empowerment. State wealth could not guarantee the social protection of the citizens of even richer countries. To achieve social and economic development, people's empowerment in all stages of decision-making and norm-setting is thus, not only essential, but a fundamental necessity.

4. We appreciate Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, for articulating these linkages between people's empowerment and development. Her initiative addresses a number of integrating interlinked and mutually reinforcing elements of peoples' empowerment and development which are: (i) eradicating poverty and hunger; (ii) reducing inequality; (iii) mitigating deprivation; (iv) creating jobs for all; (v) including excluded people; (vi) accelerating human development; and (vii) fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

5. The Group is going to table a resolution on this issue and we expect the involvement of all towards achieving a positive outcome of our deliberations.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.