Madam President of the ECOSOC, Mr. President of the General Assembly, Excellencies, Colleagues,

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

We would like to thank you for convening this thematic event on Landlocked Developing Countries to address their special needs and challenges in preparation of the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) in 2024.

At the halfway point in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the results are far from the desired ones, and in the case of LLDCs, the scenario is even more discouraging.

The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly halted progress in almost all priority areas of the Vienna Programme of Action. This has been aggravated by challenging global macroeconomic conditions leading to increased risk of debt distress, limiting their fiscal and policy space for critical investments in recovery.

The Group stresses that as the LLDCs head into the final stretches of the 2030 Agenda and the Vienna Programme of Action, efforts towards both need to be reoriented to incorporate the long-term impact of COVID-19, building of more equal, inclusive and sustainable institutions and the nurturing of resilient economies. Towards this end, a transformative recovery aimed at reducing vulnerability to future crises and ensuring that LLDCs can make the necessary progress towards achieving the SDGs and respond to the ambition and the urgency of the Vienna Programme of Action is paramount.

The Group reiterates its recognition of the special development needs and challenges of LLDCs arising from their landlockedness, remoteness from world markets and geographical constraints. These impediments impose serious constrains on export earnings, private capital inflow and domestic resource mobilization and therefore adversely affect their overall sustainable development.

In addition, the adverse impact of climate change on LLDCs has reduced the infrastructure connectivity of the Group and has imposed additional challenges. In this regard, the new Programme of Action presents an opportunity for enhancing cooperation with LLDCs with respect to climate change.

The Group emphasizes that building the productive capacities of landlocked developing countries, promoting value addition and export diversification and moving up global value chains are vital to increasing their trade potential.

It is necessary to promote the integration of LLDCs in global trade by, inter alia, enhancing support for capacity-building and technology transfer to develop digital infrastructure and policies to support e-commerce and the digital economy.

It is necessary to promote structural changes, including through intensified industrialization and a greater utilization of science, technology and innovation.

The Third Conference of the LLDCs will be an opportunity to renew our commitments to this group of countries in special situations with the adoption of a ten-year action programme that responds to their concrete needs and priorities.

The G77 and China reaffirms its solidarity with the Landlocked Developing Countries and its commitment to engage constructively in the preparatory process and negotiations on the new Programme of Action for the LLDCs. The Group looks forward to the successful convening of the Third UN Conference on LLDCs to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2024.

Thank you.