| Statement by New York, 21 September 2005 Mr. Chairman,
I wish to express my delegation’s appreciation to you, Mr. Chairman, for hosting this important meeting. I should also like to commend the Personal Representative of the Head of State of Algeria for presenting a comprehensive report on the progress of our work. Since the inception of our Group of 15 at the Belgrade Summit of the NAM in 1989, the global economic and political landscape has greatly changed. The uneven impact of globalization has rendered developing countries even more marginalized in international affairs. And today our Group is in a complex situation. Thus, our problems are both external and internal. We must therefore find a new approach and new ways of carrying out G-15 cooperation. We must go through a process of internal strengthening. And we should strive to foster closer cooperation among our member countries and take concrete action in pursuit of our development agenda. Mr. Chairman, We thank you for your thought-provoking opening remarks and the briefing you gave on the preparations for our forthcoming 13th Summit. My delegation fully understands how difficult it is to select a date for the 13th Summit, pending a decision on which would be the host country for the 14th Summit. Nevertheless, for practical reasons we need to have at least an indicative date for the next summit. To ensure that a significant number of Heads of State will be able to attend the summit, we should give ourselves ample time to make the necessary arrangements for their participation. My delegation therefore proposes that while we continue our consultations on which would be the host country for the14th Summit, we also decide on an indicative date for the 13th Summit. Mr. Chairman, My delegation fully welcomes all efforts being made to strengthen and revitalize our Group In this regard, I should like to commend our Personal Representatives for their efforts at boosting the capabilities of our Group by, among other means, inviting external consultants for the fresh and independent perspectives they can bring in. We welcome the report and recommendations of the panel of external consultants. Since the panel focused only on revitalization, that being its mandate, we should now go into further deliberations toward a plan of action. My delegation therefore proposes that the meeting give an additional mandate to our Personal Representatives to continue their work, based on the report of the panel of external consultants, with a view to providing substantive inputs and recommendations for concrete cooperation within the Group. Our Personal Representatives will
then report the results of their work to the next Foreign Ministers’
Meeting for subsequent adoption during the next Summit. On financial matters, my delegation agrees to the proposed budget for 2006, amounting to US$ 971,540. We also agree to the recommendation that it be financed by maintaining current levels of contribution and making use of earnings from investments and interests from deposits. In this regard, we need to expedite the establishment of an official website of our Group, so that member countries and other interested parties can have easy access to information on the activities, decisions and concerns of the Group. We also need to improve our financial position. We have level of arrears. We understand the difficulties that some member countries are going through. Perhaps we can address the problem of arrears through bilateral consultations. At the same time, we should work more closely with other groups engaged in South-South cooperation. There is a NAM Centre for South-South Technical Cooperation in Jakarta, which is carrying out various programmes in support of development efforts of the South, particularly in the fields of poverty eradication, SMEs, trade-related issues, micro-finance, E-commerce, ICT, health and agriculture. My delegation encourages the Group to make use of the capabilities of the Centre. Any contribution from our Group will be welcome, be it financial or in the form of proposals for joint programmes and projects. Indeed, at a time when North-South relations are not working too well, we particularly need to strengthen and rely more on South-South cooperation.
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