UN concludes high-level event on financing for development

Over 70 representatives from key international bodies and member states concluded on Wednesday a two-day gathering at UN Headquarters which focused on ways to secure development resources for poor countries amid the current economic crisis.

The High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, the fourth of its kind held by the General Assembly since 2002, was convened under the overall theme of "The Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration on Financing for Development: status of implementation and tasks ahead."

"Member states and other stakeholders of the financing for development process have engaged in a truly interactive dialogue in the spirit of the Monterry Consensus and Doha Declaration on financing for development," said Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki said in a concluding message, as delivered by an assistant.

Senior officials from the United Nations, World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization ( WTO) and other key relevant agencies as well as delegates from member states attended the meeting.

"This meeting is particularly important as it is taking place in the run-up to the September summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," he said.

The ideas, initiatives, recommendations put forward during the past two days will serve as "important and substantive input" to the preparations for a "more meaningful and actionable" high-level event on MDGs in September, he said.

The High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals is scheduled to be held at UN Headquarters in New York from September 20 to 22.

During the past two days, participants engaged in plenary meetings, multi-stakeholder roundtables and an informal interactive dialogue to discuss the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, a milestone document that calls for a development partnership between developing and developed countries, and to explore ways to respond to the impacts of the economic crisis.

Many speakers from developing countries stressed the crucial need for the fulfilment of official development assistance commitments, as well as for debt relief and fair trade policies.

While acknowledging their responsibility for their own development, they appealed for "a strong and enabling international environment, with genuine international partnership. "

Speakers from the industrialized world, including the European Union, stressed the importance of private investments, saying that the private sectors of partner countries and the mobilization of domestic resources remained among the best formulas to increase assets for development in a sustainable manner.

Source: Xinhua