Mr. President,

On behalf of the Indonesian delegation, I would like to express my appreciation to the Secretary General and the Secretariat for their reports elaborating on the implementation of the restructuring and revitalizing the United Nations in the economic and social related fields. My delegation is pleased to note that progress has been made in implementing General Assembly Resolutions 50/227 and 52/12B as well as the Council's Resolution 1998/46 aimed at ensuring the harmonization and the coordination of the work programmes of the functional commissions and other Council's subsidiary bodies. Joint meetings between the bureau of the Economic and Social Council and Bureaux of functional commissions have proven to be effective in addressing issues relating to the methods of work of the functional commissions and the related aspect of coordination and collaboration between the Council and its functional commissions. Some recommendations contained in the report need to be further implemented.

With regard to the role of the Council to ensure the harmonization and coordination in the follow up of the United Nations Conferences, my delegation would like to commend the Secretary General and the Secretariat for preparing the consolidated report on the work and the outcome of the work of the functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council in 1999. This report should greatly assist the Council in identifying and addressing major policy issues emerging from the work of the commissions that need a coordinated response by the United Nations system. It should also be able to promote a clearer division of labour among the functional commissions and provide clear policy guidance for them in the follow up of the United Nations conferences. Some important recommendations have been proposed which are worth consideration by the Council to help ensure the comprehensiveness and synergy of the work of the Council and its functional commissions as well as other subsidiary mechanisms. These recommendations should also help guard against further overlapping and duplications in their work.

In the same vein, my delegation would also like to pay tribute to the effort of Ambassador Valdivieso and Ambassador Mangoaela, the Vice-Presidents of the Economic and Social Council in conducting efficient and effective meetings of the Bureau of the Council and Bureaux of the functional commissions and presenting their report. These meetings have helped to promote increased dialogue on issues that need further guidance from the Council in ensuring the effective implementation of the Council's resolutions and decisions as well as in addressing some difficulties that still need to be resolved by the Council. The meetings has been conducted in a very effective and efficient manner including through video conferencing with the functional commissions. Some recommendations also need to be follow-up by the Council particularly with regard to the continuity of the work of the functional commissions, the adoption of multi thematic programmes including a number of important recommendations designed to strengthen collaboration and coordination between the functional commissions and the Council.

My delegation would also like to call on the functional commissions to implement, if they have not yet done so, the relevant provisions of the Council's resolution 1998/46, particularly those related to the adoption of multi-year programmes of work and to the coordinated follow-up to United Nations major conferences and summits. In order to keep the Council up-dated in this issue, I would also like to request the Secretary General to provide a progress report on this particular matter to the next substantive session of the Council.

Let me now comment briefly on the need for the Council to organize an open and informal dialogue to discuss certain issues, particularly the cross-cutting themes of the various functional commissions. We are of the view that this type of dialogue should be encouraged with participation from a number of experts, academicians, NGO representatives and the Council's subsidiaries bodies in order to provide opportunities for member countries to exchange information on best practices and lessons learned from both the experience at the national level and from that of the agencies. This meeting should be conducted while bearing in mind that this meeting will not reduce the time allocation for intergovernmental dialogues.

Mr. President,

My delegation would also like to welcome the report of the Secretary-General on the joint exploratory review of cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods Institutions. We also appreciate that the President of the Council has provide us with an informal summary of the special high-level meeting of ECOSOC with the Bretton Woods institutions. This second special high-level meeting has been regarded as a very enlightening and useful one. It has also demonstrated that the coordinating role of the ECOSOC can be effectively pursued in addressing core-economic issues, particularly with regard to financial matters. In this regard, we are of the view that the mandate as set out in the General Assembly resolution 50/227 on the need for periodic meetings of this kind should be further promoted and the agenda of the meeting should be substantively focused on to ensure that any beneficial conclusions and recommendations would be followed up and implemented for the benefits of the member countries.

In keeping with General Assembly resolution 50/227, similar meetings should be undertaken between the Economic and Social Council and the various trade institutions, particularly the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Such meetings could provide an effective forum of dialogue to address issues of common concern within the framework of the forthcoming round of negotiations for trade liberalization.

Mr. President,

My delegation firmly believes that our additional deliberations at this session would also contribute towards our common efforts to further improve the coordination of the activities of the Council and also to further strengthen the harmonization of the programmes of work of the Council and its functional commissions. It is in this same spirit that further measures need to be adopted at this session in order to further enhance positive interactions among the subsidiary organs of the Council and in turn this should help to further strengthen the Council's coordination role.

In conclusion, we would just like to assure you of our commitment to continue to work together to improve the work of the ECOSOC, its functional commissions, as well as the regional commissions. It is our expectation that as we approach the 21st century, we will benefit from the successful implementation of these recommendations adopted today. It is also our earnest hope that we will successfully conclude our work at this session.

Thank you, Mr. President.