Sixty-fourth General Assembly

Second Committee

38^th Meeting (PM)

General Assembly Will Accept Turkey’s Offer to Host Fourth United Nations

Conference on Least Developed Countries in 2011, By Second Committee Text

Committee Also Approves Draft Texts on High-level Review of Mauritius

Strategy for Small Island States, Science and Technology for Development

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this afternoon approved by consensus three draft resolutions, including texts concerning the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, science and technology for development, and the sustainable development of small island developing States. 

The text on the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries would have the General Assembly welcome and accept the Turkish Government’s offer to hold that Conference and decide to convene it in the first half of 2011 for five days, at a venue and time to be determined in consultation with the host Government.  The Assembly would decide that the meeting of the intergovernmental preparatory committee envisaged in paragraph 5 of resolution 63/227 would be organized in New York in two five-day parts – from 10 to 14 January 2011 and from 18 to 25 April 2011.   

Further to that text, the Assembly would request that the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, the focal point for preparing the Conference, ensure timely preparations and further mobilize and coordinate the active involvement of the United Nations system’s organizations.  The Assembly would emphasize the importance of country-level preparations as critical to the Conference’s preparatory process and implementation and follow-up to its outcomes, and it would call on the Governments of least developed countries to timely submit their reports. 

The Assembly would also request that the United Nations system provide the necessary support and actively contribute to the Conference’s preparatory process, as well as request that the executive secretaries of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) organize the regional-level preparatory review meetings in the context of their respective commissions’ 2010 annual sessions. 

The Committee Secretary read out an oral statement on that text.

The draft on the follow up to and implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for the further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States would have the Assembly reaffirm its decision to convene a two-day high-level review in September 2010 and decide that it be structured around an opening plenary meeting, followed by two multi-stakeholder round-table sessions, an interactive dialogue on cross-regional perspectives and a closing plenary meeting.  The Assembly would also decide that the review be chaired by the Assembly President and request that he present a concise draft political declaration based on inputs for the preparatory meetings, at an appropriate date to allow sufficient consideration and agreement by the Member States.

The Assembly, further, would decide to convene regional preparatory meetings of small island developing States in their regions, as well as an inter-regional meeting for them, to review the Mauritius Strategy nationally and regionally.  For that purpose, the Assembly would also decide that all relevant United Nations agencies should organize, facilitate and provide necessary support to the review process.  The Assembly would decide that the preparatory committee meeting for the high-level review should be convened during the eighteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development.

The Committee Secretary announced that an oral statement on that draft’s budget implications would be considered at the Committee’s meeting on Friday.

A text on the science and technology for development would have the Assembly request that the Commission on Science and Technology for Development provide a forum within which to continue to assist the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in the system-wide follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information society, and, furthermore, address the special needs of developing countries in areas such as agriculture, rural development, information and communication technologies and environmental management.

That text would also have the Assembly call for continued collaboration between United Nations entities and other international organizations, civil society and the private sector, to implement the Summit outcomes, and encourage the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and other relevant organizations to assist developing countries in their efforts to integrate science, technology and innovative policies in national development strategies.

Also during the meeting, Germany’s representative introduced a draft titled “Amendments to the Charter of the United Nations University,” which is contained in Annex II of document A/64/234.  Committee Chairperson Park In-kook ( Republic of Korea) announced that, earlier in the day, the Assembly, on the recommendation of the General Committee, decided to include an agenda item entitled “United Nations University” in its current session and to allocate that item to the Committee. 

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m., Friday, 4 December, to take action on outstanding draft resolutions.

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For information media • not an official record