ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS, ADOPTS PROGRAMME OF WORK
Press Release
GA/EF/2758
ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS, ADOPTS PROGRAMME OF WORK
19970919 The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this afternoon elected Hans-Peter Glanzer (Austria) as Vice-Chairman and Rae Kwon Chung (Republic of Korea) as Rapporteur. The election of a second Vice-Chairman was postponed. The Committee also adopted, as orally revised, its programme of work for the fifty-second session.According to the Committee's programme of work, most matters before the Committee are clustered under the following eight headings: macroeconomic policy questions; sectoral policy questions; sustainable development and international economic cooperation; environment and sustainable development; operational activities for development; training and research; permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory over their natural resources; and the report of the Economic and Social Council.
In opening remarks, the Committee Chairman, Oscar de Rojas (Venezuela), who was elected on 16 September, said he would follow the practice adopted last year and organize executive briefings by senior officials, keynote addresses and panel discussions of topics on the Committee's agenda. He would report to the Committee on 13 October as to the schedule of those special events.
Before adoption, the Secretary of the Committee, Margaret Kelley, proposed a number of oral amendments to the programme of work, including the postponement of discussion of item on the implementation of the outcome of the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States from Monday, 20 October, until Tuesday, 11 November. Also, the item on food and sustainable agricultural development would be postponed from Friday, 24 October, until Thursday, 30 October. She also proposed that the item on trade and development be postponed from Friday, 24 October, until Monday, 10 November.
Several representatives voiced concern about the availability of adequate conference services for informal consultations. The Chairman said the Committee would always have the services it needed to conduct its work, and the services provided for meetings of the Committee would be used for informal consultations.
The representative of Cuba asked why the report of the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) was not listed under the item 97 (b) on trade and development. Ms. Kelley said her office would look into why the report had not been included and would ensure that it was listed in the revised programme of work.
Several representatives suggested that all the sub-items under the general heading on environment and sustainable development be kept together and that discussion of all those items be postponed until 11 November. The Chairman agreed. He said the Secretariat would issue a revision of the programme of work, and the Committee would take a fresh look at the revision at its next meeting and decide if further changes should be made.
Also this afternoon, William Bunch, Chief of the Documentation Programming and Monitoring Section, reported to the Committee on the status of documentation.
The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 13 October, to begin its general debate on the world economic situation.
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