Co-Facilitators,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

2. Allow me to begin by thanking you, Co-Facilitators, for convening this open consultation to discuss the nature and substance of the outcome document for the Special Event to follow up efforts towards achieving the MDGs, scheduled to take place on 25 September 2013. The Group acknowledges your efforts over the past three months in trying to arrive at a fully agreed modalities text and we welcome today's opportunity for members to express their views on these two key aspects of the outcome document.

Co-Facilitators,

3. The Group of 77 places great importance on this Special Event. It is the last opportunity for our leaders at the highest political level to collectively take stock of MDG progress to date, and to renew their political will and support to accelerate the achievements of the MDGs by 2015. As we work towards a UN development agenda beyond 2015, it is imperative that the implementation gaps of the MDGs and the poverty agenda are sufficiently addressed over the next two years. At this critical juncture, the stakes of this important occasion are high for the UN and its members. While the Special Event focuses on the MDGs, it is also about the credibility and relevance of the UN as a global intergovernmental forum to play a central role in the ongoing efforts to find common solutions of international problems of an economic, social, environmental, cultural or humanitarian character.

Co-Facilitators,

4. In addressing the four questions posed in your covering letter of 20 May 2013 pertaining to the nature and substance of the outcome document, the Group of 77 holds the following views.

5. First, the primary focus of the short outcome document must stress the lessons learned, identify the implementation gaps, including unfulfilled commitments, as well as containing action-oriented proposals of concrete measures to save and accelerate the achievement of the MDGs.

6. Second, the overall message of the outcome document should reiterate and renew UN member states' political will and commitment to seriously tackle poverty in all its manifestation. It should convey the aspirational ambition that all States are working collaboratively with the UN agencies and other stakeholders, under an enhanced international partnership, which places the human face at its core, to address multi-dimensions of global development challenges, particularly in the economic, social and environmental fields.

7. Third, the outcome document should acknowledge the ongoing silo processes that are taking place in the UN with a view to bringing convergence of these processes under a single set of UN development agenda post 2015, without prejudging the outcomes of the various negotiations.

8. Fourth, as we set our eyes on the post-2015 development agenda, the UN system must engage all States in its process. The Group of 77 reiterates its call for our political leaders to use this Special Event to give a political mandate to officially launch the intergovernmental process in the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda. The mandate to kick start this intergovernmental process could be captured in one paragraph of the outcomes document without the need to embark on a lengthy debate. We urgently need a roadmap to guide States from September 2013 to the point of adoption of a new agenda at a 2015 development summit.

9. Finally, the Group of 77 and China reiterates its position that given the importance and significance of this high-level Special Event, the meeting must be member-driven, and its outcome must be intergovernmentally relevant and implementable.

Thank you.