Mr. President,

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

2. I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for convening this high-level dialogue on the important theme of focusing on the status of implementation and tasks ahead in relation to the Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General for his report on the "Follow-up and implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration on Financing for Development".

3. The Group of 77 and China shares a number of concerns identified in the Secretary-General's report, particularly in the areas of international financial and technical cooperation for development; international trade, external debt; and the need to address systemic issues to enhance the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems in supporting development.

Mr. President,

4. Consistent with the theme of this high-level dialogue, the Group wishes to recall paragraph 90 of the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development and the General Assembly resolution 67/199 decision to hold an informal consultation with a view to taking a final decision on the need for a follow-up financing for development conference by 2013. With less than three months to go before the end of 2013, we would like to urge you, in your capacity as the President of the sixty-eight session of the General Assembly, to appoint co-facilitators before the end of the year and to hold open, inclusive and direct intergovernmental consultations, with the participation of all State Members, on all issues related to the conference.

5. In view of the Development Summit at Heads of State and Government level, mandated to be held in September 2015 for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, the Group believes that a Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development should be held before the end of 2015, in order for the conference to contribute meaningfully to the post-2015 development agenda process.

Mr. President,

6. On the modalities of financing for development and arrangements to strengthen the follow-up process, the Group reiterates its call for the establishment of an appropriate follow-up mechanism within the United Nations system, a Financing for Development Commission subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council, to bridge the gap between policy making and implementation of commitments, as well as to ensure the necessary support for the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals.

7. The Group welcomes the decision of the General Assembly to convene at the current session a separate meeting of the Second Committee under the item entitled "macroeconomic policy questions" to discuss actions in response to the world financial and economic crisis and its impact on development, as a further contribution to the follow-up to the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development. Given the importance of this agenda item for developing countries, the Group will submit four resolutions relating to international trade and development, international financial system and development, external debt sustainability and development, and commodities, in the upcoming Second Committee session.

Mr. President,

8. The Group of 77 reiterates its view that the global financial and economic crisis cannot be a convenient justification for developed partners to avoid fulfilling existing international financial and technical cooperation for development. It is ironic that Official Development Assistance (ODA) continues to decline as our leaders reaffirmed their commitment recently at the Special Event on MDGs to accelerate progress towards achieving the MDGs by the 2015 deadline and look towards elaborating a bold post-2015 development agenda, with poverty eradication and sustainability as its core.

9. While ODA alone is insufficient to meet the full sustainable development needs of developing countries, it remains crucial for countries without sufficient resources to fulfill development goals. An enhanced predictable and sustainable flow of ODA is essential to meet the regular development challenges as well as new and emerging challenges in developing countries, in particular in Least Developed Countries. In this respect, the Group expresses its deep concern that for the second time, ODA fell for two consecutive years, and that developed countries, with a few exceptions, are still far from achieving the longstanding goal of mobilizing 0.7% of GNP as ODA to developing countries, including the target of 0.15-0.20 per cent of GNP to the LDCs.

10. Moreover, given the urgency and seriousness of climate change, the operationalisation and capitalization of the Green Climate Fund by early 2014 has to be prioritised and scaled up to reach US$ 100 billion per year by 2020. In the context of sustainable development, the Fund will play a key role in channelling new, additional, adequate and predictable financial resources to developing countries and will catalyse climate finance, both public and private, and at the international and national levels.

Mr. President,

11. The G77 recognises that the innovative mechanism of financing can make a positive contribution in assisting developing countries to mobilize additional resources for development on a stable, predictable and voluntary basis

12. We reiterate that such financing should neither substitute nor negatively affect the level of traditional sources of development financing, including ODA. We believe that there has been a considerable progress in innovative sources of financing for development, though it is important to scale up present initiatives and develop new mechanisms, as appropriate. Priorities should remain focused, namely, on providing additional, stable and supplementary resources to traditional development financing, particularly in favor of developing countries.

13. The Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration also stress the importance of remittance for development. The Group supports the Secretary-General Report's call for source and destination countries to collaborate with a view to reducing the transaction costs of remittances, and where possible, relax legal and funding barriers to remittances and other financial flows by migrants.

Mr. President,

14. Debt crisis is costly and disruptive and is often followed by cuts in public spending, adversely affecting developing countries. There is no path to growth and no achievement in poverty eradication with unsustainable debt overhang. Debt relief and sovereign debt management are therefore crucial issues for developing countries. In this regard, the Group reiterates its call for the international community to urgently examine options for an effective, equitable, durable, independent and development-friendly debt restructuring and international debt resolution mechanism.

15. The Group views international trade as an engine for development. In this regard, a fair multilateral trading system is essential to ensure sustained growth in global trade and create new market access and opportunities for developing countries. We believe that the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation, scheduled to take place in Bali in December 2013 provides an opportunity to advance the Doha Round of trade negotiations and break the longstanding impasse. The Bali Conference should fully respect the WTO's development mandate and take into account the needs and priorities of developing countries.

16. Lastly, the Group of 77 wishes to underscore the importance of having a favourable and enabling international environment to complement developing countries' national efforts in eradicating poverty and advancing their level of development. Systemic shortcomings of international monetary, financial and economic institutions must be addressed through serious reforms. A more inclusive framework of global economic governance is required to improve the functioning, stability and resilience of these institutions. This requires a strengthened role and increased effectiveness of the United Nations, including high-level engagements with all relevant international and regional financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders.

I thank you, Mr. President!