Mr. President,

The Chinese delegation would like to thank the Secretary General for his three reports submitted under this agenda item. China associates itself with the statement made by the representative of Yemen on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, and wishes to offer the following observations on this item.

First, the Chinese delegation commends the various actions taken by the UN development system for the comprehensive implementation of the GA resolution 62/208 on the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of the Operational Activities for Development of the UN System, and expresses appreciation for the unremitting efforts by all parties in promoting the UN System-wide Coherence.

China has always supported the UN development system in carrying out necessary reforms, and highly praises the outstanding contribution made by the last pair of co-facilitators, H.E. Mr. Ghazi Jomaa, Permanent Representative of Tunisia and H.E. Ms. Tiina Intelmann, Permanent Representative of Estonia, to the successful conclusion of the four-year-long consultative process on System-wide Coherence.

However, the reform has just started and cannot be completed at one stroke. With economy, climate change, food security and energy related global challenges growing in severity, greater political commitment and more practical actions on the part of all the stakeholders are needed for the timely attainment of the MDGs. China hopes that the UN High-Level Plenary Meeting on the MDGs this September will galvanize new global consensus on development and set effective and feasible plans of action so as to renew momentum towards achieving both the MDGs and the long-term sustainable development.

Secondly, financing for development is currently one of the paramount concerns of the developing countries. The quality and quantity of resources have a fundamental impact on the operation of the UN development system. Adequate, sustained, stable and predictable core resource is both the foundation of the operational activities for development and the guarantee for the effective implementation of the principle of national ownership.

As a result of adversities such as the global financial and economic crisis, core resources of UN funds, programs and agencies showed a general downward trend last year and the imbalance between core resources and other resources became more pronounced, eroding the fundamental characteristics of the UN operational activities for development, including their multilateral, neutral and grant nature. China welcomes the fact that last year, some donor countries took “counter-cyclical” measures to maintain or increase as appropriate their funding for the UN development agencies, with some even experimenting with the approach of “full core” funding policy.

We call upon all donor countries to implement in real earnest the Monterrey Consensus by increasing their contributions to the UN development system based on their capacity and commitments, so as to lessen the over-reliance of the funds and programs on a handful of donor countries.

Thirdly, “national ownership and leadership” by the recipients is the basic principle and essential guarantee for high effectiveness of development assistance. The effectiveness of development assistance hinges on the alignment of aid programs with the national development strategies and priorities of the recipient countries.

China’s experience of 30 years of development cooperation with the relevant UN agencies has shown that the UN development agencies must tailor their assistance to the particular needs of the recipient countries and take into consideration the specific national conditions and facilities of the latter, instead of imposing uniformity or using a “one-size-fits-all” approach. The resident coordinators should strictly follow the principle of “national ownership by the recipients”, work under the coordination by the recipient governments, improve reporting of results to the recipient governments, disseminate and promote modes of national implementation, and utilize on a priority basis local expertise and technology, so that the recipient countries can reap real benefits.

Fourthly, capacity building and capacity development are the foundation and fulcrum for the developing countries to achieve long-term sustainable development, and should also be a priority area of UN operational activities for development.

China has noted that in recent years, the UN development system has increased inputs in national capacity building and development and accumulated a wealth of success stories. However, improvements are sorely needed in the areas of policy coherence and resource support.

In addition, South-South cooperation, as an important supplement to North-South cooperation, has made significant contributions to mainstreaming capacity building and development. The UN development system should provide necessary policy and financial support to South-South cooperation and explore new ideas and new ways for promoting South-South cooperation. China hopes to see in the Secretary-General’s next annual report an improvement in result analysis, assessment and reporting on the support provided by the UN development system to the developing countries in strengthening capacity building and development, as well as South-South cooperation.

Thank you, Mr. President.