Distinguished Madam Chair,
members of the Bureau,
colleagues,

1. I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

2. I wish to thank you, Madam Chair, and your Bureau, for your hard work and for the documentation provided for today’s session on the proposed organizational arrangements and the modalities to be considered for the 76th session of the Committee.

3. As the proponents of the majority of the resolutions of the Committee, and the special relevance of the Second Committee for all developing countries, it is of the utmost importance for the G-77 that the Second Committee speaks and delivers on the overall development agenda and addresses in a comprehensive manner all the outstanding issues relevant for today’s world, including the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on our countries and the need of a strengthened international cooperation and multilateral system in support of our national recovery plans and strategies. We assure you of the Group’s commitment to work constructively on the overall work of the Committee.

4. Overall, the Group recognizes that the proposed Second Committee Bureau’s Paper on the work of the Committee, builds and slightly improves upon the modalities adopted for the 75 session, agreed by consensus. We consider that the document for adoption today has moved in the right direction, and we are grateful to further recognize that it took on board several of the main concerns raised by G77 and other delegations along the process. In this regard, the Group is pleased to join consensus on the document.

5. We would like to stress that the overall modalities for the 76th Session will be exceptional and will not create a precedent for future sessions.

6. We appreciate and support that the modalities do not set any sort of prioritization nor creates unequal or preferential treatments for some resolutions or reports over others, something that the Group would not have supported. In the same light, we support that equal number of consultations have been allocated to all resolutions.

7. We strongly feel that addressing and moving forward the Second Committee development agenda, as a whole and in equal manner, is critical in the current circumstances and in benefit of the overall international community, particularly for developing countries, in order to leave no country and no one behind.

8. The Group also believes that each report of the Secretary-General is relevant to its specific area of focus, so we fully support that the SG reports will be considered on equal basis.

9. We support that this organizational meeting, the General Debate of the Committee and sessions for action on draft resolutions are to be held in person, which is consistent with the existing rules and procedures of the General Assembly and its Main Committees. In addition, we support that the annual joint meeting between the Committee and the ECOSOC will be held in person, an improvement over the last session.

10. Furthermore, we support the proposed modalities for the consideration of resolutions, which build upon last year agreement and recognize constitute a minor improvement with respect to the 75 UNGA. In this light, the Group supports the possibility to include up to two new operative paragraphs, including but not limited to COVID-19 related aspects of the resolution. We believe that this approach, even when limited in its scope, will allow the Committee to address at least some of the substantive and critical issues, which are necessary to address today in the context of each resolutions. We further believe that this basis is the minimum we can adopt for the 76th UNGA.

Madam Chair,

11. The Group also wants to take this opportunity to bring to your attention another related important matter.

12. As we know, the General Assembly decided, in its resolution 75/243, paragraph 9, which was adopted by consensus, that programmes of the budget that do not get conclusions and recommendations from the Committee on Programme and Coordination (CPC) should be reviewed by the plenary or the relevant Main Committee responsible for those mandates. This must be done in a timely manner, so that the Fifth Committee can discuss and approve the related budget.

13. It has come to the attention of the G-77 and China that the CPC, in its 61st session last June, did not recommend the approval of a programme of the proposed programme budget for 2022 which contains mandates under the purview of the Second Committee: namely Programme 7 – Economic and Social Affairs Therefore, this programme should be discussed by the Second Committee under Agenda “Item 139 – Programme Planning”.

14. Our Group believes it is the responsibility of the membership to discuss the substance of the programmes that did not receive a conclusion or recommendation from the CPC, according to Resolution 75/243. We look forward to having a constructive discussion about these open programmes during the upcoming session of the Second Committee.

15. Madam Chair, to conclude, once again, the Group remains fully vested to support you and the bureau so that we would have a successful and meaningful session. Please be assured of the Group’s full and constructive engagement.

I thank you.