Mr. President, Ambassador Salim Baddoura (Lebanon),
Secretary-General, Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi,
Minister of National Economy, State of Palestine, H.E. Ms. Abeer Odeh,
Excellencies,
Distinguished colleagues,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

I would like to thank the Secretary-General and his team for the report on the Assistance to Palestinian people.

The G77 and China express its concern that Palestinian people and economy continue to face challenges of poverty, Israeli settlements land confiscations, movement restrictions, closures and de-development and other extreme conditions imposed by the Israeli Occupation. As the report mentioned there is an urgent need to replace the customs union with Israel enshrined in the Paris Protocol with a new framework that helps the State of Palestine to break the cycle of de-development.

The group emphasizes the importance of the UNCTAD’s assistance to the Palestinian people program, in raising international community’s awareness of the Palestinian suffering and in supporting the efforts to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East in accordance with the General Assembly resolutions and UNCTAD’s mandates related to development and trade in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Mr. President,

We reiterate the need of the technical assistance to the Palestinian people undertaken by the UNCTAD and call for their further enhancement and reinforcement by attributing adequate budget and human resources, securing resources is critically important for UNCTAD to strengthen its assistance to the Palestinian people and the implementation of paragraph 55(dd) of the Nairobi Maafakiano.

It’s a matter of concern that full implementation of para 55 (dd) could not be made possible due to “budgetary constraints and limited extrabudgetary support”. We call for implementation of this important decision in support of Palestinian people and request the Secretariat to provide detailed proposal and the budget estimates required for fulfilling its mandate.

I thank you Mr. President.