Mr. Chairman,

The Chinese delegation wishes to thank the Under-Secretary-General for Management, Ms. Alicia Barcena for her introduction of the fifth progress report on the implementation of the CMP. We welcome the Assistant-Secretary-General, Mr. Michael Adlerstein, Executive Director of the Capital Master Plan. We would also like to thank the chairman of the ACABQ Mr. Saha for his introduction of his committee's report and the Director of External Audit of the Philippines, Mr. Roland Rey for introducing the relevant report of the Board of Auditors. While associating itself with the statement made by Pakistan on behalf of G-77 and China, the Chinese delegation wishes to make the following remarks regarding the CMP.

The General Assembly adopted in 2006 Res. 61/251, which approved the Capital Master Plan of renovating the UN Headquarters building by stages, namely Strategy Four. We have noticed that certain results have been achieved over the past year such as the appointment of an executive director, the awarding of the construction management service contract as well as results in matters relating to construction documents. However, we also note with concern that due to various reasons, the progress of implementation lags far behind the requirement of the GA, which might bring about additional financial burdens to the member states in the amount of over 200 million US dollars. Since the CMP concerns the safety of the Secretariat staff, representatives of member states and other people having access to the UN building and involves the practical interests of member states, we believe that the Secretariat has the obligation to try every possible means to guarantee the timely implementation of the CMP in accordance with the requirement of the General Assembly.

The Secretary-General's report described the challenges and risks of the CMP implementation and proposed the Accelerated Strategy Four based on the relevant requirements of the GA Res. 61/251 and the consideration of safety and convenience while promising to keep within the budget limit of 1.876 billion US dollars. The ACABQ believes that the proposal has its merits and proposes for the approval of the Accelerated Strategy Four by the GA. We welcome the Secretary General's efforts in implementing the CMP and believe that the relevant proposal of the ACABQ is worthy of serious consideration by member states. We would like to request the Secretary-General to take effective measures to implement the relevant proposals of the Board of Auditors and the ACABQ, and gives attention to the requests of member states on not conducting the value engineering at the expenses of the quality of the renovation and maintaining transparency on procurement. We support the implementation of the CMP ahead of schedule while safety, convenience and unchanged budget level should be maintained, so that the Secretariat staff, representatives of member states, other people coming to the UN meetings as well as tourists can enjoy a safe and functional UN building.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.