I have the honor to introduce, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, the draft resolution entitled "New Partnership for Africa's Development: progress in implementation and international support", contained in document A/67/L.57, under agenda item 63, sub-item (a).

The Group of 77 and China would like to express its appreciation to all delegations for their constructive deliberations on and contributions to the draft resolution. Our gratitude is also directed to the President of the Assembly for allowing the space for members to conduct further consultations and clarifications on the ambiguous aspect of this very important resolution.

The draft resolution presented today reaffirms the support of the international community for the implementation of the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development and recognizes the progress in its implementation.

Furthermore, this draft resolution recognizes that NEPAD has provided an ideal framework for the development of various policy frameworks such as the "Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme" (CAADP) but also, the "Programme for Infrastructure Development" (PIDA) .

With regards to the topic of governance, the draft resolution welcomes the commendable progress that has been achieved in implementing the African Peer Review Mechanism, in particular the completion of the peer review process in 15 countries, and welcomes the progress in implementing the national programs of action resulting from those reviews. The draft resolution also welcomes and appreciates the sustained efforts of African countries in mainstreaming a gender perspective and the empowerment of women in the implementation of the New Partnership.

The progress made thus far by Africa must continue to be supported by developed countries. With less than a 1000 days left, Africa remains the only continent not on track to achieve the Millenium Development Goals by 2015.

In this regard, the draft resolution underlines the fact that the fulfilment of all official development assistance commitments is crucial, including the commitments by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product for official development assistance to developing countries by 2015, and urges developed countries that have not yet done so to fulfil their commitments for official development assistance to developing countries.

Africa's efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, create jobs and ensure sustainable development must be complemented by sustained support from the developing partners. In this vein, the draft resolution urges the international community to give due attention to Africa's priorities, in particular NEPAD, in the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda.

Last but not least, the resolution presented today reaffirms the pivotal role by the Office of the Special Advisor of African Affairs (OSAA), and requests the Secretary-General to continue to take measures to strengthen OSAA in order to enable it to effectively fulfil its mandate, including monitoring and reporting on progress related to meeting the special needs of Africa.