Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

I have the honor, on behalf of the G77 and China, Geneva chapter, to welcome you to this meeting. We are pleased to be hosting the first Chapters meeting this year. We are confident that this meeting will chart the activities of G77 during 2005, a particularly challenging year, since it will witness many important world events whose agenda will impact on all of our work.

While I will circulate G77 Geneva proposals and ideas for the items under discussion, and would wish them to be put on record and circulated to the different chapters, I aim to brief you in this short statement about the main highlights of the Geneva Chapter this year:

1) Contribution of the Geneva Chapter to key processes: We realize the challenges that face all of us, and the increasing complexity of the issues that we have to tackle. For that reason, the Geneva chapter is adopting a participatory approach whereby the maximum number of its members can contribute effectively to the preparations. A core group has been suggested with focal points on the several world events that merit special attention.

2) UNCTAD: Since this is the first year after UNCTAD’s XI’s session, G77 is keen on translating the Sao Paulo Consensus into concrete areas of work of UNCTAD’s Intergovernmental Machinery in consensus building, policy analysis and technical assistance. This is not an easy task since mapping the areas of agreement in the consensus into concrete proposals for implementation faces unfortunate reinterpretation from some of our development partners.

3) GSTP: Under the auspices of UNCTAD, the Sao Paulo Negotiating Round of GSTP was launched. Many of G77 members are already party to GSTP and active participants in this negotiating round. It is our aim this year to increase the awareness of the overall membership and to seek wider participation. We believe GSTP is a concrete mechanism to strengthen South South cooperation.

4) Substantial Contribution to International Meetings: Geneva Chapter is fully aware of the importance of the two main international events to be held later this year: mainly the South Summit and the High Level Event on the Follow Up of the Millennium Summit. Cognizant of the relevance and importance of the issues under discussion in these two meetings, the Geneva Chapter has set up internal mechanisms to contribute substantively to the formulation of the overall G77 position, benefiting from the expertise derived from its coordination efforts in UNCTAD and the other specialized agencies and international organizations located in Geneva.

5) Advancing a Development Platform for the South: We intend to benefit from the intellectual contribution of UNCTAD XI in developing new conceptual ideas for development mainly the concepts of policy space for development, corporate responsibility for economic development, and new geography of international economic relations.

These are but a few of the areas of priority for our Chapter this year. The ideas are elaborated in the circulated papers. Throughout this meeting, the Geneva Chapter invites your comments and contributions on our orientation for this year, especially as detailed in the attachments.

Thank you.