SECRETARY-GENERAL REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO CLOSE COOPERATION BETWEEN GROUP OF 77 AND UNITED NATIONS

12 January 1999

Press Release
SG/SM/6861

SECRETARY-GENERAL REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO CLOSE COOPERATION BETWEEN GROUP OF 77 AND UNITED NATIONS

19990112 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY 'Your Agenda is Our Agenda', Kofi Annan States At Group's Meeting for Turnover of Chairmanship from Indonesia to Guyana

Following are remarks by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the ceremonial meeting to mark the formal turnover of the Chairmanship of the "Group of 77" developing countries from Indonesia to Guyana, at Headquarters today:

It gives me great pleasure to join you today and to reaffirm, at the outset of a new year, my commitment to close cooperation between the Group of 77 and the United Nations. Your agenda is our agenda.

Our first order of business is to acknowledge the constructive leadership shown by Indonesia over the past year. It was a tumultuous period for the world economy, and for Indonesia itself. Indeed it was a time when Indonesia might have looked only inward.

But Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, and Indonesia's team here in New York, led by Ambassador Wibisono, remained admirably engaged at the United Nations and within the Group of 77. That commitment to multilateralism and Indonesia's important contributions merit our lasting gratitude.

The helm of the Group of 77 must continue to be in the hands of individuals with a similarly firm grasp not only of the global economic predicament, but also of the relevant international machinery. That is why I have great confidence in the incoming team: Clement Rohee, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guyana, and Ambassador S.R. Insanally, who presided over the General Assembly just six years ago. I am sure you all recall the valuable "World Hearings on Development" that were held during his tenure. Let us today wish Guyana well in fulfilling its new responsibilities.

I do not want to sound grim, but it is safe to say that the economic and social challenges of 1999 are shaping up to be every bit as numerous and complex as the ones of the past year. Many of the countries of the Group of

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77 were hit very hard by events of 1998. They know all too well that the global crisis is far from over.

The numbers we are seeing continue to shock and dismay: millions of workers losing their jobs; millions of children dropping out of school; food staples doubling and tripling in price, placing them beyond the reach of people who are already needy and suffering. Safety nets remain few or non- existent. Crime and violence are on the rise.

Even those countries who have managed to avoid or contain the damage face the perennial challenges of feeding their people, fighting against poverty, protecting the environment, promoting human rights and providing democratic governance and transparent public administration.

Multilateral institutions have a key role to play in this effort. Markets, communications, and movements of goods, funds and people are all increasingly global. But politics and fears are local. Institutions such as the United Nations can help bridge that gap.

The question is how. If the dark cloud of crisis has had any silver lining, it is that the past year was especially fruitful for international economic cooperation at the United Nations. Dialogue has been strengthened. Issues and assumptions have been revisited. Through it all, the Group of 77's voice has been central.

You have pressed for reform in the international financial system, in order to avoid future upheavals. You stressed the need for policy-makers to make poverty reduction their main goal. You continued to contribute to the debate on United Nations reform and revitalization in the economic, social and related fields. And you have helped make the United Nations a vital forum for discussing the impact and fallout of globalization.

For more than a decade, in fact, you have argued in favour of paying simultaneous attention to economic and social issues. Such links are now more widely recognized, not only in the United Nations but also in the Bretton Woods institutions. I would only add that there is an undeniable political element that is sometimes neglected. Let us never forget that prosperity and peace are also political achievements.

The agenda for 1999 is crowded. The General Assembly will meet in special session to assess progress since the International Conference on Population and Development. We will also be preparing for similar reviews of conferences on small island developing States, social development and the advancement of women. We will have the tenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD X) and the Millennium Assembly in the year 2000, and the international gathering on financing for development in the year after that.

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Each of these events is an opportunity. Taken together, as an interrelated programme, they offer a compelling chance to make significant progress on some of the major questions of our time. The Group of 77 is the largest single grouping of like-minded countries at the United Nations. So let us make the most of this great influence and potential. You can count on my support, as I know I will be able to count on yours.

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