Cites organization´s positions on achieving MDGs, improving regulation of international financial system, enhancing productive capacities of developing countries
Geneva, 26 September 2008 - Current financial turmoil, difficulties with food supply, and revised strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) bear out concerns raised by UNCTAD last year and previously and show the organization is on the right track, Secretary-General Supachai Pantichpakdi said this afternoon.
This validated the organization´s role at the leading edge of analysis of global economic problems Mr. Supachai told the closing meeting of the 55th session of the organization´s Trade and Development Board (TDB).
He said for example that the organization had anticipated some aspects of the current financial crisis, having recommended repeatedly in its Trade and Development Report that more extensive rules should be fashioned to regulate the international financial system, in the way that rules regulate the global trading system.
And he said UNCTAD´s repeated calls for a focus on broad economic development, including improvements to developing countries´ productive capacities, had received a respectful hearing at Thursday´s High-Level Event on the MDGs at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
A Chairman´s summary of last week´s debate on the MDGs had been distributed at Thursday´s High-Level Event, he said. It stressed "the emphasis we placed on integrating the MDG efforts into an overall effort for a broader economic development strategy."
During TDB discussion on trade and the now-stalled Doha trade negotiations, Mr. Supachai said, the Board stressed "the need to forge multilateral solutions to solve some of the pending financial crises that are so threatening." He cited the recommendation of one panellist that implementation of the multi-agency Aid for Trade programme "should not await the end of the Doha Round; it should be operationalized as soon as possible."
Mr. Supachai recommended that a special executive session of the Board be held in November to prepare for the Financing for Development summit to be held at the end of that month in Doha. Such a TDB session would ensure effective input from a trade and development perspective and would" re-introduce some of the analyses UNCTAD has made to reassess the course of financing for development."
And the Secretary-General said the two-week TDB session showed the importance of "spelling out a strategy for Africa so that we can consistently pursue policies that can meet MDG goals and realize hopes and prospects for further development in Africa."
The meetings reaffirmed the commitment of the Secretariat to implementing the Accra Accord coming out of the 20-25 April UNCTAD XII quadrennial conference in Ghana, Mr. Supachai told the Board. "We need to steer the course together." And he remarked that increased publicity given to the TDB was in line with the Accra Accord´s recommendation that UNCTAD expand its communication activities.
UNCTAD will put still greater effort into providing "cutting edge" analysis in its research and reports in the future, he said.
The 55th session of the Trade and Development Board opened on 15 September. This year´s high-level debate -- held the opening day -- was on "trade and productive capacities for achieving internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs." Other topics discussed during the two weeks of meetings included the status of least developed countries, economic development in Africa, the state of foreign direct investment around the world, the situation in Palestine, and trends in trade and development. These debates were based on the findings of recently released UNCTAD reports.
