SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES CRUCIAL ROLE OF GROUP OF 77 IN ENSURING BENEFITS OF GLOBALIZATION ARE SHARED BY ALL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Press Release
SG/SM/7276

SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES CRUCIAL ROLE OF GROUP OF 77 IN ENSURING BENEFITS OF GLOBALIZATION ARE SHARED BY ALL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s remarks today a ceremonial meeting to mark the formal turnover of the Chairmanship of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China from Guyana to Nigeria:

It gives me great pleasure to be with you today for this meeting marking the turnover of the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 from Guyana to Nigeria.

Throughout the past year, under the able leadership of Foreign Minister Clement Rohee and Ambassador Samuel Insanally, the Group of 77 has once again demonstrated its effectiveness in keeping development issues high on the United Nations agenda. Guyana's team should be commended for helping us all to steer a tricky course through some highly congested waters.

And now I take great pride and pleasure in congratulating Foreign Minister Alhaji Sule Lamido and Ambassador Chief Arthur Mbanefo of Nigeria on the assumption of Nigeria's duties as Chairman of the Group of 77 for the coming year.

Africa is one of the main priorities of the United Nations, and Nigeria has recently given all Africans a fine example by its return to sound civilian leadership. It is altogether fitting that the continent's most populous nation should take over the leadership of the Group of 77 now, as we embark on the new millennium.

Development -- and especially international cooperation for development -- continues to occupy a central place in our work. In the year to come, as in the year or two that have just passed, much of that work will no doubt focus on the impact and implications of globalization.

Globalization provides choices and opportunities for prosperity. But millions around the world perceive globalization as a destructive and disruptive force, while many more millions have been completely excluded from its benefits. The Group of 77 has a crucial role to play in ensuring that, in the future, those benefits are shared by all developing countries.

In the year ahead, the United Nations calendar offers no shortage of opportunities for you to make your case. There will be major discussions on each of globalization's primary driving forces: trade, finance and technology.

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First, the tenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD X), to be held just four weeks from now, offers a major opportunity to strengthen and advance the position of developing countries in the area of trade. After the imbroglio in Seattle, it is vital that we pick up the pieces and explore ways of making trade work better for the poor.

Secondly, the General Assembly will be discussing the organizational and substantive details of the international event on financing for development, which it has agreed to hold in 2001. The United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions attach great importance to this process, but only with the help of a united Group of 77 can we hope for a successful outcome.

Thirdly, this year's high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council will address the issue of information technology and its role as the backbone of today's knowledge-based economy. Developing countries cannot afford not to master this technology, if they are to win their rightful place at globalization's banquet.

Beyond these three core areas, the year will also feature vital follow-up meetings to the Beijing and Copenhagen conferences. And all of this activity will culminate, in the autumn, with the Millennium Assembly and Millennium Summit.

These meetings offer us a great chance to think through the challenges that lie ahead of all our Member States, and to ensure that the United Nations provides them with the service they will need. But that chance will be lost unless developing countries play a full part, not only in the Assembly and Summit themselves, but in the process leading up to them. I rely on you to ensure that they come to it with positive, constructive ideas, and with a generous, inclusive vision of the future.

In short, the road ahead is crowded with events and opportunities to advance the development agenda of our United Nations. I have great confidence that the Nigerian delegation will lead you, not only with expertise, but with sincerity and determination. I wish you all success in the year ahead.

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