Mr. President:

       At the outset,  I would like to thank the Secretary-General for his detailed report on the issue of partnerships. It contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the state of cooperation between the United Nations and its partners in various areas over the past two years.

       The reach of economic globalization has broadened and deepened over recent years, but the gap between the North and the South continues to widen and the disparity in development among countries has become more pronounced. At the same time, we witness a considerable role being played by the private sector, especially the heavyweight transnational corporations, in globalization. In order to turn globalization into a positive force benefiting all and to promote common and balanced development of countries in the process of globalization, the relevant partners, especially the private sector, should make their unique contributions with giving full play to their own advantages in financing and technologies. In this context, we support the United Nations to strengthen its cooperation with the relevant partners, in order to encourage them to take part in the actions aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and implementing the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences in the economic and social fields.

        We have observed that the United Nations and its relevant partners have carried out cooperation in diverse forms over the past two years. Many private sector, non-governmental organizations, and civil society actors have actively participated in the International Conference on Financing for Development, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and the implementation of specific projects in the field of development, playing a positive role in achieving the goal of poverty eradication and other MDGs. We appreciate their actions in this regard. At the same time, for better cooperation between the United Nations and its relevant partners that takes full advantage of strengths of the relevant partners and optimize their contribution to the work of the United Nations, I would like to emphasize the following points:

        First, cooperation with the relevant partners should conform to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as well as the rules and procedures of the United Nations, and without detriment to the intergovernmental nature of the Organization. This is the basis for the United Nations' cooperation with the partners.

        Second, partnerships should complement to, but not substitute for, intergovernmental cooperation, and its overriding priority should be toward making contributions to the achievement of the MDGs and the implementation of the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences in the economic and social fields. Partnerships should be action-oriented. We agree with the observation of the Secretary-General in his report that "partnerships must prove their worth in a practical manner by the achievement of concrete results."

        Third, the Secretary-General also pointed out in his report that "there is no single model for successful partnerships." We fully agree with him on this point, and believe that the United Nations should adopt diverse and flexible forms of cooperation with relevant partners in view of the characteristics of the partners and the areas and levels of cooperation, and the cooperation should aim at making contributions to the achievement of the objectives set by the United Nations in the field of development.

        Fourth, partnerships need to be guided and regulated in order to ensure their quality. We support the proposal, made by the Secretary-General in his report, "to create more robust processes for partnership reporting and accountability." At the same time, we believe that the comprehensive and detailed guidelines and criteria on partnerships in the field of sustainable development, formulated by the Commission on Sustainable Development at its eleventh session, could serve as guidance for other partnerships within the United Nations system in the field of development.

        Thank you, Mr. President.