Statement by H.E. Mr. Vassiliy Takev

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of the Delegation of the Republic of Bulgaria

At the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries

Brussels, Belgium (14-20 May 2001)

(Check Against Delivery)

Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Third Conference on LDCs is a good opportunity to review the challenges facing the LDCs and to revitalize their growth and development. Our common goal now is to create a consensus on the measures and programmes that will enable more than 600 million of the world's citizens to improve their living standards and attain United Nations social development targets. The Conference might be the last chance to mark a turning point at which the gap between the developed and developing countries will cease to widen and the reverse movement will begin to assert itself.

Distinguished colleagues, Delegates,

The holistic framework of the draft Programme emphasized the need for reforms on the part of the LDCs and for greater coordination and additional resources on the part of the development partners. It gives due attention to the governance issues and principles: democracy and respect for human rights, including gender equality, stability, rule of law, building institutional and human capacities, accountability, sound macro-economic management and protection of the environment. I would like to point out the importance of the strong political will and efforts to carry out the necessary reforms.

Although LDCs have the primary responsibility for the formulation and effective implementation of their own development, international community must assist them by creating an enabling external environment. Development partners, international economic institutions and organizations, multinational companies and NGOs could play an important role in helping LDCs to overcome underdevelopment and ensure a better future for their peoples.

Mr. Chairman,

I would like to focus on some major issues:

One of the greatest challenges for the international community regarding the LDC's is the eradication of poverty through long-term sustainable development. The issue has been unanimously accepted as a priority for the international community and reflected in the Millennium Declaration as well as in a number of statements of the UN Secretary-General. A main task for this Conference is not simply to identify a set of recommendations and measures, but rather to ensure commitments from all stakeholders to undertake adequate action throughout

the next Decade. We need an agreement on the creation of real space of solidarity embodying crucial sectors: agricultural development, education, health, industrialization, energy, promoting the role of women in development, building the scientific and technological base.

High priority should be given to adequate financial resources, necessary to strengthen the domestic financial markets and address macro-economic imbalances. Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Foreign Direct Investments remain the principal external sources and catalysts for economic growth. The successful deployment of increased aid should depend on its quality, the effectiveness of its utilization and the capacity of the LDCs to absorb it and direct it properly. Better coordination between the donors is also an important prerequisite.

The financial assistance should be complemented by the growth-inducing potential of the international trade. New initiatives must be taken in order to assist the LDCs to adapt to a rapidly changing environment in the globalizing world. The international community should support them in a number of key areas, namely: creating conditions for improved exports of natural resource based products, increased export marketing of non-traditional products, improvement of the cost-effectiveness and technological levels of production and management of human resources development.

We welcome the recent initiative of the EU "Everything but arms" and the similar steps undertaken by other development partners. We believe that the implementation of the commitments made by developed countries at the WTO - general council in May 2000 to grant tariff- and quota free market access for LDCs on essentially all products will improve considerably their market access and integration into the world economy.

The seriousness of the debt problems of the LDCs requires a comprehensive solution based on international and national actions. We welcome the steps, made by the donor community to address external debt problems and consider as crucial the full implementation of these actions.

Mr. Chairman,

An important element for the successful outcome of the Conference is the agreement on the effective national, regional and international follow-up mechanisms and criteria. The monitoring of the performance indicators is essential for the implementation of the Programme. The organizations within the UN system should play an important role in this process.

The Programme of Action should be integrated with the outcome of other UN World Conferences and the main international agendas like the Special Session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, the International Conference on Financing for development, the 10year review of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro etc. It should tie into processes like the

Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative, Poverty Eradication Strategy Papers, programs to combat tuberculoses and malaria, UNDAF, Country Assessment Strategies of the UN.

Mr. Chairman,

Bulgaria, which itself went through a period of transition to market economy gained knowledge and experience in achieving economic stabilization and moving forward with the structural reform, modernizing the state administration, enforcing the rule of law in civil society and creating favourable conditions for sustainable economic growth. As a country, already in negotiations for accession to the EU, Bulgaria is concerned not only for its economic development and well being, but also for achieving sustainable development for all the countries and regions, especially the less developed ones. During the past 4 years Bulgaria has managed to achieve a recognized financial stability and is moving now towards a growth oriented economic development, broadening the scope of its involvement in various areas of cooperation. Despite some remaining difficulties, Bulgaria continues to provide technical assistance to a number of LDCs in the realization of different projects, education and training of personnel. A considerable number of Bulgarian specialists work in LDCs and many students from these countries graduate from Bulgarian universities.

LDCs could benefit from the completely transformed economic environment in Bulgaria. The rapid development of the Bulgarian private sector creates new business opportunities. The development of the direct enterprise-to-enterprise cooperation could contribute substantially to further revitalization of the trade with the LDCs. We continue to make concerted efforts to develop mutually beneficial economic relations with LDCs, putting special emphasis on expanding production and building their manpower resources. As an expression of our will to contribute further to the cooperation with countries from different world regions could be noted the decision taken by the Bulgarian Government to establish diplomatic relations with twelve Small Island Developing States. In order to increase its contribution to the conflict prevention and to the establishment of international environment of peace and security, as a basic prerequisite for sustainable development, during the Millennium Summit Republic of Bulgaria has declared its readiness to increase its direct financial support to the Peacekeeping operations under UN auspices by voluntarily moving from group C to group B, according to the present scale.

Mr. Chairman,

I would like to conclude by expressing the hope that the Third Conference on LDCs will forge a solid partnership in support of the efforts of the Least Developed Countries and will contribute for their full integration into the world economy.

We live on the same planet and share common responsibility for our common future.

Thank You for Your kind attention.

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