INFORMATION FOR MEDIA: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT, MONTERREY, 18-22 MARCH

                                                                  Note No. 5718

                                                                  6 March 2002

Note to Correspondents

INFORMATION FOR MEDIA:  INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT,

MONTERREY, 18-22 MARCH

The International Conference on Financing for Development  will be held at the Cintermex Convention Centre in Monterrey, Mexico, from 18–22 March.  This Summit-level meeting is being convened by the United Nations to address key financial issues affecting global development.  In addition to a number of Presidents and Prime Ministers, participants will include ministers of finance, trade and foreign affairs; the United Nations Secretary-General; the heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization; as well as representatives of civil society and the business sector.

Conference Schedule

The summit-level portion of the Conference takes place for two days: Thursday and Friday, 21 and 22 March.  Prior to this will be three days of ministerial discussions.  The Conference will open at 10 am on Monday, 18 March.  Related events include a civil society-organized Global Forum that will convene on Thursday through Saturday, 14–16 March.  A pre-conference briefing for journalists will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, 17 March.  An International Business Forum will meet on Monday, 18 March.

Opening Session: Monday, 18 March, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

High-level officials will meet in a plenary (full) session on the first morning of the Conference, Monday, 18 March.  The Co-Chairs of the Preparatory Committee, Ruth Jacoby (Sweden) and Shamshad Ahmad (Pakistan), will present the “Monterrey Consensus” agreed upon by the Preparatory Committee.  There will also be statements from regional commissions and development banks, and elections of the office holders of the Conference.  Mexico’s Deputy Finance Minister, Santiago Levy, Deputy Trade Minister, Jaime Zabludowsky, and Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergio Ganzalez Galvez, will be Co-Presidents of this meeting.

Ministerial Plenary: Monday afternoon, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Ministers of finance, trade and foreign affairs from the attending countries will meet in a plenary session on the afternoon of Monday, 18 March, starting at 3 p.m.  The ministers are expected to refer the Monterrey Consensus to the summit-level meeting for consideration and approval.  The ministers will receive the reports from the International Business Forum and the civil society Global Forum and hear statements from various intergovernmental bodies.  Mexico’s Finance

Minister, Guillermo Oritz; Trade Minister, Hermino Blanco; and Foreign Minister, Jorge Castaneda, will jointly preside over this ministerial session.

Ministerial Round Tables: Tuesday and Wednesday

The format of the Conference shifts for Tuesday, 19 March, and Wednesday, 20 March.  These two days will be devoted entirely to ministerial-level round tables.  Each day, two round tables will be held simultaneously in the morning from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. and two in the afternoon, from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.  These interactive round tables will each have 70 participants divided between government delegations, business and civil society representatives and the United Nations.  Forty-eight ministers of finance, trade or foreign affairs from the attending countries (from both developed and developing regions) will participate.  Representatives of the United Nations and the other institutional stakeholders (including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization) will fill eight seats.  Accredited civil society representatives and business sector representatives will each have seven seats.  A list of participants will be issued separately.

The theme of the four round table discussions on Tuesday will be “Partnerships in financing for development”. On Wednesday the theme will be “Coherence for development”.  The round tables will be closed, but accredited delegates and observers will be able to follow the discussion via closed-circuit TV in an overflow room.  A press conference will be held at 6:30 p.m. each day to brief journalists on the discussions.

Summit-Level Segment: Thursday and Friday

The summit-level segment of the Conference will begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday, 21 March, with a plenary meeting which will continue for the remainder of the Conference, running until the end of business on Friday, 22 March.  This segment of the Conference will be presided over by the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox.  The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Han Seung-soo , and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, will address the opening session on Thursday morning, as will the heads of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn; the International Monetary Fund, Horst Kohler; and the World Trade Organization, Mike Moore.  By pre-established order, Presidents, Prime Ministers and other heads of delegations will then address the plenary sessions, which will be held on Thursday from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. - 8 p.m., and on Friday from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.(approx).

Summit Round Tables: Thursday and Friday Afternoons

Summit-level round tables will also be held, two on Thursday afternoon and two on Friday afternoon.  On Thursday, the two round tables will run simultaneously from 3-6 p.m.  On Friday, they will run from 4-7 p.m.  Heads of government delegations will meet with representatives of the international institutions, civil society and the business sector to discuss the theme, “Financing for development: Looking ahead”.  A list of participants will be issued separately.

Closing: Friday Evening

There will be a final closing plenary session on Friday evening, after the round tables end and the statements by the heads of delegations finish.  This is expected to be around 8 p.m.  At the closing session, the Monterrey Consensus will be adopted.  The Conference will be closed by the President of Mexico.

Global Forum and International Business Forum

From Thursday through Saturday, 14–16 March, the civil society-organized Global Forum will meet in the Fundidora Auditorium (also called the Coca Cola Auditorium) in the park next to Cintermex.  Media facilities will be available in the Auditorium.  For information about this Forum contact: Sonia del Valle Lavin in Mexico City at telephone (52-55) 5510-2033, e-mail: cimac@laneta.apc.org or Rosa Guadalupe Lizardi in New York at telephone (1-718) 789-9747.  After 10 March, please call her cell phone number 1-347-451-7794

The International Business Forum will meet on Monday, 18 March, at the Museum building in the park next to Cintermex, to present and discuss private sector proposals to advance the development agenda and to improve investment opportunities in developing countries.  Keynote addresses will be delivered by Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals; George Soros, President and Chairman, Soros Fund Management; Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); and Trevor Manuel, South African Finance Minister.  Follow-up dialogues and business briefings will be held on each of the other days of the Conference.  For further information about the International Business Forum contact:  Chris Bailey, Business Council for the United Nations in New York at telephone: (1-212) 661-1772, e-mail bcun@unusa.org

The Reports of the Global Forum and the International Business Forum will be heard by the plenary session of ministers on the afternoon of Monday, 18 March.

Other Events

In addition to the formally scheduled events listed above, there will be several high-profile events at Cintermex or in the town of Monterrey and its environs. 

Events for heads of State and government include a dinner hosted by the President of Mexico on Thursday evening starting at 8 p.m., and a retreat on Friday from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. also hosted by the President of Mexico. 

At the Conference site, there will be a number of side events every day.  Those include on Monday, a meeting with Ministers of Health sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a ministerial-level meeting of the Global Environmental Facility.  On Tuesday, a number of discussions will be held, including panels on financing rural development, investing in children, a global educational campaign, and on a global social trust, among many others.  On Wednesday, side events include discussions on governance, micro-credit institutions, financing water infrastructure, corporate social responsibility, housing and on gender.  A full list of side events will be announced separately.  Participating in these side events will be many high-level United Nations experts, business leaders and civil society experts.

Press Conferences

Press conferences will be held daily in the press conference room located in the Exposition hall of Cintermex.  These will be scheduled through the Office of the Spokeswoman for the Conference, located in the Media Centre.  A schedule of press conferences and other activities will be issued daily in the Conference Journal, in the Media Centre and will also be available on the Conference Web site www.un.org/ffd.  

Two daily briefings by the Spokeswoman of the Conference will be held at noon and at 6:30 p.m. in the press conference room.  These will be held in English with interpretation into French and Spanish. 

Pre-Conference Briefing

A pre-conference briefing will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, 17 March, in the press conference room at Cintermex.  All journalists accredited to cover the conference are invited to attend.  The briefing will cover logistics as well as substantive information about the Conference.  It will be held in English with interpretation into French and Spanish.

Media Arrangements

A Media Centre will be located in the Exposition hall of Cintermex.  The Media Centre will have facilities for the use of all journalists accredited to cover the Conference.  Facilities will include a limited number of computer workstations with Internet access available on a first-come, first-served basis, and a broadcast village for radio and television journalists.

The plenary sessions and other activities will be broadcast live into the Media Centre.  Audio-visual and sound feeds of the plenary sessions, press conferences and other events will be provided to broadcasters live on request, free of charge.  Plug-in recording facilities will be available.  A documents counter will provide journalists with all Conference documents as well as copies of daily press releases in English, French and Spanish covering the main activities of the Conference.  They will also be made available electronically on the conference Web site: www.un.org/ffd.

The Office of the Conference Spokeswoman, located inside the Media Centre, will be staffed throughout the Conference by the United Nations Department of Public Information to answer all logistical and other questions of the media.

Technical Assistance and Information

For television and radio technical information including about live feeds, contact Livingston Hinckley at the United Nations Department of Public Information in New York at telephone 1-212-963-9399 until 11 March. After that date he may be reached at the Conference site.

Inquiries concerning media arrangements may be directed to the United Nations Department of Public Information in New York at 1-212-963-6862, 1-212-963-2932, 1-212-963-5851 or by e-mail at mediainfo@un.org until 15 March.  After that date, please contact the Office of the Conference Spokeswoman at the Conference site.

Media Accreditation

Media representatives are encouraged to apply for accreditation before the Conference.  The accreditation form is available at www.un.org/esa/ffd/0302Media-Accred-form.pdf.

A completed application form together with a letter of assignment on official letterhead from the Editor or Bureau Chief and two colour passport photos should be sent for pre-accreditation, before 7 March to:  United Nations, Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, Department of Public Information, Room S-250, New York, NY 10017, USA, Tel: 1-212-963-6934, Fax: 1-212-963-4642, email: media-accredit@un.org.  No acknowledgement will be mailed.  Accreditation at the conference site begins on 12 March.

Passes will be issued at the Conference site in Monterrey, Mexico, starting on 12 March.  In addition to the application and letter of assignment, journalists will be required to present two forms of photo ID (such as passport, official national press pass, driver’s license, work ID) to receive their passes.

      Conference Centre Address

Cintermex

Av. Fundidora 501

Interior Parque Fundidora Col. Fundidora

Monterrey, N.L. Mexico

C.P. 64010

Tel. (52) (81) 8369-6969

      Additional Information

For information on Monterrey, accommodation, accreditation documents, and other information, please visit the Conference web site at www.un.org/ffd. 

      Media Contact Information

General Media Information: Tim Wall in New York at telephone 1-212-963-5851 until 12 March, thereafter at cell phone 1-917-690-7664; or Nick Snyder in New York at 1-212-963-4382, and via e-mail at snydern@un.org.

TV, radio and technical information: Livingston Hinckley in New York at telephone 1-212-963-9399 until 11 March.  Thereafter at the Conference site.

Media accreditation: Sonia Lecca in New York at telephone: 1-212-963-6934 until 7 March.  Thereafter at the Accreditation Centre in Monterrey.

Conference Spokeswoman: Susan Markham in New York at telephone 1-212-963-6862 until 14 March.  Thereafter at the Office of the Conference Spokeswoman, number to be advised.

To schedule a press conference: Israa Hamad in New York at telephone 1-212-963-1453 until 15 March. Thereafter contact Nenad Vasic at the Office of the Conference Spokeswoman telephone 1-917-324-6214.

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