Hon. Mr. Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United Nations:
Hon. Mr. Csaba Körösi, President of the 77th Session of the UNGA:
Hon. Mr. António Guterres, UN Secretary General:
Mr. Mourad Ahmia, Executive Secretary of the Group of 77 plus China:
Distinguished permanent and invited representatives:
I would like to reiterate my gratitude for the support and trust placed in Cuba to lead the work of the G77 plus China in 2023. It will be a year of great challenges and complex processes that will demand determined action from the countries of the South.
I also extend my congratulations to Pakistan for the successful work carried out at the head of the Group in 2022.
I also take the opportunity to express our gratitude to the team of the G77 Secretariat plus China, confident that we will count on their valuable support during our Presidency.
Excellencies:
The great challenges that the current economic order has generated for the developing world reach their most acute expression in these times of systemic crisis, that is, health, climate, energy, food, economic, escalation of geopolitical tensions and in renewed forms. of domination and hegemony.
Unequal access to vaccines, the digital divide, the burden of external debt, structural reform of the international financial architecture, financing flows for development, food insecurity, restrictive trade measures, climate finance and the capacity building remain unaddressed today in all its dimension.
It is already evident that the modest progress achieved in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda is at risk of being reversed. We are witnessing a more divided and selfish post-pandemic world.
It is necessary to mobilize between 3.3 and 4.5 trillion dollars a year if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. At the current level of public and private investment in the sectors related to the SDGs, developing countries face an average annual financing gap of 2.5 trillion dollars, and this occurs in the midst of the most serious multi-system crisis faced by humanity[1 ].
Developing countries have only 24 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 for every 100 inhabitants, while the richest have almost 150 doses for every 100 people[2].
It is the countries of the South that have seen their external debt practically double in the last ten years[3]; while they are the same ones that have had to spend an estimated 379 billion dollars of their reserves to defend their currencies in 2022, almost double the amount of new special drawing rights that the International Monetary Fund allocated to them[4].
The least developed countries only contribute 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but have suffered 69% of the deaths caused by climate-related disasters[5].
Our needs for climate adaptation will skyrocket between US$140 billion and US$300 billion per year until 2030. However, financing from developed countries today represents less than a tenth of that amount[6].
At the same time, more than thirty measures and systems of unilateral coercive measures against developing countries remain in full force[7]. It is a trend that, far from being reversed, has been exacerbated in recent years.
Excellencies:
Unity is the watchword in these difficult times. Only by building consensus can we move towards realizing our legitimate development aspirations.
From our Presidency, we are committed to consolidating the unity, presence and influence of the Group in the multiple and relevant multilateral processes to be held this year. We will defend that our common interests are duly taken into account.
We will guide the work in a flexible and always constructive manner, based on the broadest consensus, to put into practice the transformative vision that our Group defends.
It will be our priority to promote international solidarity and cooperation in support of the post-pandemic recovery of our nations.
We will work to materialize cooperation projects from the South in the fields of health, biotechnology, education, combating climate change and disaster prevention, which give a lesson in unity, complementarity and real political will.
We will not give up on our fair claim to developed countries that they fulfill their commitments to Official Development Assistance, climate financing and North-South Cooperation.
We will face any attempt to put on our shoulders the promises broken by the most powerful nations, which allocate millions of dollars to weapons and not to development.
We will promote tangible commitments in terms of financing under favorable conditions and capacity building for the countries of the South.
We will advocate for the use of science, technology and innovation as drivers of sustainable development. We will take the Group's heritage in this matter as a starting point, and we will promote a common roadmap to face present and future challenges.
In this spirit, we will convene a Summit on science, technology and innovation as a premise for development and confronting future pandemics, to be held in Havana this year.
Scientific-technical development is today monopolized by a club of countries that monopolize most of the patents, technologies, research centers, and promote the drain of talent from our countries.
The South has great potential in terms of science, technology and innovation. We must unite, complement each other, integrate our national capacities so as not to be relegated to future pandemics. The appointment in Havana seeks precisely that objective: to build on the basis of our rich wealth of experiences in this sphere.
In climate matters, we will work to consolidate a solid position of the Group in view of COP 28. We will defend the achievement of substantive results on issues of special interest to the Group, particularly those related to the fund for losses and damages, climate finance and the adaptation.
The foreign debt, the principal amount of which has already been paid several times, has become one of the main obstacles to the development of our peoples and has become a powerful instrument to perpetuate the financial looting and economic dependence of the countries of the South. .
In this sense, we will promote innovative approaches to address the debt architecture, which provide fiscal space for our nations to invest in post-pandemic recovery, climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals, and contribute to avoiding future debt crises. .
We will insist on the comprehensive restructuring of the international financial governance system, in the hands of a few institutions that profit from the reserves of the South, perpetuate underdevelopment and apply merely temporary recipes with the purpose of reproducing their scheme of modern colonialism.
We will also strengthen coordination between the G77 chapters of other multilateral venues to identify work priorities in the multiple negotiation processes in 2023.
We will put all our efforts into guaranteeing the success of the III South Summit, whose Declaration and Program of Action we hope will strengthen the historical heritage of the Group and set guidelines for our actions in these times of enormous challenges.
Excellencies:
The current moment does not admit hesitation or divisions. These are times to act together in defense of our neglected claims.
The Joint Declaration of 1964 identified the highest place of unity in the face of the basic problems of development. That union has been the fundamental pillar of the conquests of the South in the last six decades.
On the threshold of our 60th anniversary, let us embrace the founding principles that gave birth to this diverse and representative grouping of nations. Let's work so that, at the end of this year, we are stronger and more united.
For Cuba, this will be the expression of the duty fulfilled. For the Group, it will represent an invaluable step on the path to realizing our historic aspirations as developing nations.
Thank you
[1] Data provided by ICES.
[2] Data taken from the Report "Financing for Sustainable Development 2022: Closing the great gap in financing", of the Inter-institutional Working Group on Financing for Development.
[3] Data obtained from resolution A/RES/77/174: “Towards a new international economic order”.
[4] Data obtained from the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2022
[5] Data obtained from the UNCTAD Report on Least Developed Countries 2022.
[6] Data obtained from the UNEP Report: "Adaptation Gap report 2022" and provided by ICES.
[7] Data obtained from the UN Secretary General's Report (A/76/310) on the resolution “Unilateral economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries”.
(Cubaminrex)