Mr. Chairman,

At the outset, please allow me to warmly congratulate you and the Permanent Mission of Iran on your assumption of the chairmanship of the Group of 77 for this year.  I am confident that under your leadership, the Group of 77 will unite as one and play a better role in safeguarding the interests of developing countries.  I would also like to take this opportunity to pay high tribute to last year's Chairman, Nigeria, under whose leadership the Group of 77 successfully convened the first South Summit and actively participated in the document-drafting process of a series of important meetings, including the Millennium Summit, among many other things it has done during that very busy year.  What is especially commendable is that the UN documents on important issues were made to represent the interests of developing countries.  We would like to thank, in particular, Ambassador Mbanefo and his colleagues for their contributions in this regard.

For this very first year of the new century, developing countries still face very serious challenges.  After the South Summit, they still need to turn its guiding principles into concrete actions, under the guidance of the Havana Declaration.  Also, it will take strenuous efforts to carry out the Programme of Action adopted at the South Summit, bringing the spirit of establishing a new international economic and political order to multilateral fields, especially negotiations in the economic and social fields as well as into the process of promoting a more active UN role in solving the concrete issues developing countries are now facing.  The special sessions of the UN General Assembly on children, human settlements, racism and AIDS, the 3rd UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries and other important meetings to be held this year involve a wide range of fields.  On all these occasions, we can only better defend our own interests through full preparation and good organization and strengthened coordination.  Besides, the preparatory process for the high-level international intergovernmental event on Financing for Development is now at a critical stage.  By making policy proposals, developing countries should play a leading role and guide the meeting in a direction that is conducive to our mobilization of sufficient financial resources for development.  Also, the preparatory work for Rio+10 will be formally launched this year.  We should lose no time to make studies and coordinate positions so that we will have a better time at the Conference.

The sound cooperative relations between China and other developing countries are firmly based on our common unfortunate experiences in the past as well as the challenges we face together today.  In the new year, we will, as always, further enhance our coordination and cooperation with the G77, actively support the Chairman's work and contribute to the promotion of international cooperation on development as well as the prosperity and growth of developing countries.  In this connection, I wish to mention that the Chinese Government has decided to donate 20,000 US dollars to the Group of 77 this year.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.