Mr. Chair,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on the organization of work for the second part of the resumed 78th session of the Fifth Committee.

2. The Group of 77 and China extends its appreciation to you, your bureau and the Secretariat of the Fifth Committee led by Lionel Berridge for the work that you are doing to facilitate the Committee do its work efficiently and effectively.

3. The Group would also like to appreciate the efforts made by the Chair and members of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions "ACABQ" in providing sound technical advice to the Committee, for their hard work, and for availing all their reports to the Committee on time his session.

Mr. Chair,

4. The Group would also like to express our profound gratitude for the men and women, both in uniform and not in uniform, who continue to serve in the various peacekeeping missions of the United Nations. We also pay tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of peace on behalf of the United Nations.

5. With respect to the agenda items before the Committee this session, the Group attaches great importance to the consideration of administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of UN peacekeeping operations, in particular, the overview of the financing of UN peacekeeping operations, cross-cutting issues, the Support Account for peacekeeping operations, the budgets of the Regional Service Center in Entebbe and the United Nations Logistics Base, the Board of Auditors' report, the delivery model of the UN Mine Action Service, the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services on peace operations, among others.

6. The Group also looks forward to receiving the update the General Assembly requested in its resolution 78/253, on the cost-recovery fund. We recall that the said resolution requested the Secretary General to provide, during this second resumed session, information on very specific parameters to have a better understanding on the surplus that has been identified on the cost-recovery fund. We underscore that this update to the Fifth Committee must be detailed, since we already received a briefing portraying the situation in general terms.

Mr. Chair,

7. On the specific issue of allocation of time for the workload of the Committee at this session, the Group emphasizes that realistic and proportional time should be allotted for consideration of agenda items. A case in point is the allocation of time for the introduction of reports this morning, with more than fifteen (15) reports scheduled to be introduced and their general debate within three (3) hours.

8. The Group of 77 & China will pay keen attention to the discussions on the various agenda items before the Committee and will engage actively and constructively with all our negotiating partners with a view to concluding this session within the time allocated to the Committee.

I thank you.