SECOND COMMITTEE APPROVES PROGRAMME OF WORK FOR FIFTY-SIXTH SESSION

Fifty-sixth General Assembly

Second Committee

2^nd Meeting (PM)

SECOND COMMITTEE APPROVES PROGRAMME OF WORK FOR FIFTY-SIXTH SESSION

Will Elect Bureau, Begin General Debate 1 October

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this afternoon approved its programme of work for the fifty-sixth session and postponed the election of its bureau to 1 October.

In his introductory remarks, Committee Chairman Francisco Seixas da Costa (Portugal) said that in a globalized world, it was difficult to view development issues in an isolated context.  A central challenge for the United Nations, and particularly the Second Committee, was poverty eradication, which was vital for sustainable development.  It was important, he stated, that development be based on sound environmental policies.

In a world of over 6 billion people, population issues were crucial to discussions on development, he continued.  In negotiating resolutions in the Committee, he hoped that the concerns of the least developed countries would not be overlooked.

According to the programme of work, most matters before the Committee were clustered under the following headings:  macro-economic policy questions; sectoral policy questions; sustainable development and international economic cooperation; environment and sustainable development; operational activities for development; international migration and development; training and research; and permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources.

The Committee would also be considering items relating to globalization and interdependence, implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the outcome of the special session of the Assembly on that topic, implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), high-level international intergovernmental consideration of financing for development, and the report of the Economic and Social Council.

Comments on the programme of work were made by the representatives of Iran (on behalf of the "Group of 77" and China), Belgium (on behalf of the European Union and associated States), Brazil, United States and Russian Federation.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 1 October to elect its bureau and begin its general debate.

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