High-Level Committee on Review of TCDC

Organizational Meeting

1^st Meeting (AM)

TECHNICAL COOPERATION COMMITTEE ELECTS PRESIDENT, BUREAU

The High-Level Committee on the Review of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) this morning held an organizational meeting for its twelfth session, which will be held in New York from 29 May to 1 June.

During the morning meeting, the Committee adopted its provisional agenda and programme of work for the upcoming session

Alounkeo Kittikhoun (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) was elected President of the twelfth session by acclamation.  Mr. Kittikhoun is concurrently Chair of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries and Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee for the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries.  He was nominated for the presidency by the Group of Asian States.

The representative of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic said that before leaving New York for Brussels, Belgium, to prepare for the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (14-20 May), Mr. Kittikhoun had asked him to convey his apologies for not being able to attend the meeting personally.  He conveyed his appreciation to the Committee and also to the Asian Group for promoting his presidency of the Committee.  He would do his best to fulfil the tasks entrusted to him.

The outgoing President, M. Patricia Durrant (Jamaica), informed members that in the absence of her new President, she had been asked to continue her presidency of the Committee for today’s organizational meeting.  She said she was sure Mr. Kittikhoun would guide the Committee’s deliberations to a successful conclusion.

Also elected by acclamation as Vice-Presidents were Percy Metsing Mangoaela (Lesotho) for the African States, and Fabio Cassese (Italy) for the Group of Western European and Other States.  Ms. Durrant said consultations were still under way for the nomination of a Vice-President for the Group of Eastern European States.  The Committee would revert to that matter when consultations had been concluded.

In other action this morning, Jean Maxime Murat (Haiti) was elected by acclamation as the Rapporteur of the Committee.  Mr. Murat was nominated by the Latin American and Caribbean Group of States.

Ms. Durrant told members that, as part of the effort to make meetings of the High-Level Committee more interactive during the twelfth session, a thematic discussion had been introduced.  The theme for that discussion would be “The Role of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries in Science and Technology for Development”.