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Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando said at the Twenty - Seventh Annual Meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 held in the UN Headquarters in New York on September 25 that they are meeting at a time when the outcome of the World Trade Organization Meeting in Cancun could be described as a "set-back".

Minister Fernando said: Some regard this as a victory for developing countries as it showed the unity of the developing nations in pressing their demands. However, the outcome for us has been negative. Therefore, we the Group of 77 and China, being the largest lobby group of the third world on economic issues should use our strength to press hard to resume the WTO negotiations to fulfil the road map for trade liberalization, adopted in Doha two years ago.

He said while doing so, we the Group 77 and China need to respond urgently to the pressing issues that confront us at present, taking into account the fact that economic disparities between the developed and the developing countries have increased. The Meeting was presided over by Mr. Mohamed Benaissa, Foreign Minister of Morocco. There is a membership of 130 UN members to G 77.

"The World economy is being globalised faster than we had anticipated. Globalisation is gathering momentum everyday. With increasing opportunities have come challenges and risks for developing countries. We observe, that the process is erratic and unbalanced with uneven participation of countries and people. In International Trade, developing countries have suffered economic setbacks due to the tariffs and quotas imposed by the developed countries. The Group of 77 and China, therefore, should use its present strength to urge the developed countries to be more amenable with regard to their trade barriers to enable developing countries to expand their participation in the global trade, securing their due share," he said.

Minister Fernando said the Group has clearly recognized the importance of the United Nations as the central forum for dialogue and policy - making on questions relating to development and international economic co-operation. We firmly believe that the United Nations must play a key role in international economic policy - making and global economic development issues. We are of the view that a firm alliance needs to be forged by the UN member to shoulder the responsibility of strengthening and revitalizing the Organization to enable it to meet future global challenges, particularly development issues.

He said reform of the United Nations remains high on our agenda. We appreciate the work done by the Secretary - General in the United Nations reforms and his continued efforts in carrying out the reform process, which focuses on ensuring that the United Nations programme of work is aligned with the priorities and goals laid out in the Millennium Declaration.

We believe that the UN reforms should take place not only in the General Assembly but in all its principal organs as well. Our group should insist that in accordance with the Millennium Declaration the developed countries extend their full support and provide the necessary financial resources, technology required for capacity building to enable the developing countries to fully implement their commitments.

In this regard the General Assembly at its 57th Session established a World Solidarity Fund to eradicate poverty in the developing countries. The Group of 77 and China should examine the Secretary - General's Report on the operationalisation of this Fund, but alas, it is yet to receive contributions. The fund is expected to support the Governments of developing countries to finance poverty alleviation programmes including initiatives from community - based organizations and small private sector entities.

"Another issue that affects sustainable development efforts of the developing countries is the debt and debt servicing problem.

While we recognize that both the lending countries and the receiving countries must share the responsibility for preventing and resolving the unsustainable debt situation, we should urge the donor countries to provide the additional resources necessary to meet the requirements of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) preparing those in the African Continent enabling those HIPC countries to meet their needs. Let us make maximum use of our Group's strength and negotiation capacity to work tirelessly towards that end, Minister Fernando said in conclusion.

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