Acting President of the Trade and Development Board, Ms. Carolyn MacLeod (Canada),
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,

1. At the outset, the Group of 77 and China would like to thank the representative of Tanzania for the report on behalf of the Chair of the Advisory Body in the period 2021-2022, Ambassador Maimuna Tarishi of Tanzania. We would also like to thank UNCTAD for the quality of the work under this capacity building programme, also known as P166, in particular the regional course on key issues on the international economic agenda, the short courses for Geneva based delegates, and their recent online e-course on building resilience and responding to shocks. The P166 courses, in all their variants, are very much appreciated by officials in capitals and by delegates in Geneva.

2. Our Group supports the investment in the ability of policymakers from developing countries and economies in transition from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, to meet global economic and trade challenges through their capacity and understanding of economic issues, including building resilience and responding to various shocks.

3. This UNCTAD programme provides the channels for enhancing such knowledge, through its building resilience and responding to shocks online course, which was developed and rolled out for policy makers across developing regions.

4. Member States of this Board, both developing and developed, have encouraged UNCTAD to enhance its inter-divisional cooperation. This programme is a leader in this sense, as it is integrated cross-divisionally and cross-regionally, under the lead of the Division on Technology and Logistics, and with strong involvement and support from experts in different divisions of UNCTAD, the regional economic commissions of the United Nations and national experts.

5. We take positive note of the four regional courses organized and delivered thus far in the biennium 2021-2022, namely for Eastern Europe, held in North Macedonia in September and October 2021; for Arab economies, held in Egypt in December 2021; for Africa, held in Kenya in April 2022; for Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Argentina in June and July 2022. Our Group also looks forward to a fifth regional course to be delivered during this biennium, in this case for Asia and the Pacific, to be held in Islamabad in November 2022. The Group of 77 and China would like to thank all hosts for their support to this programme.

6. Indeed, the support afforded by the hosts of multi-year venues is a key indicator of the commitment of member States to the flagship programme, and also serves to raise the predictability of delivery and provide important support to the secretariat: from Buenos Aires to Nairobi, and from Cairo to Islamabad, and Skopje.

7. The value of this programme lies in providing government officials with up-to-date information and analysis on key issues on the international economic agenda in macroeconomic, trade, investment and related policy areas, while providing the opportunity to better understand implications and interlinkages among different sectoral policies and their contributions to the national development strategies.

8. In this respect, our Group is pleased to note that the evaluations of the regional courses illustrated that the participants and their departments appreciated the debates on development-related aspects and the integrated approach of the programme; and that it deepened the knowledge of policy makers on economic and development matters. We thus encourage UNCTAD to continue to highlight the existing debates and the design and implementation of appropriate economic policies that contribute to growth and the development process in general, with taking into account the peculiarities of various economies.

9. Our Group also takes positive note of seven short courses for Geneva-based delegates delivered on various topics, from maritime and trade facilitation to the UNCTAD Productive Capacities Index. Our members appreciated the short courses as they served to update Geneva-based delegates on the most recent issues and developments on the international economic agenda. The short courses were also appreciated as an opportunity for a rich and informed dialogue, yet in informal setting, between UNCTAD’s researchers and Geneva based representatives.

10. Our Group would therefore like to thank the UNCTAD secretariat for the support afforded to the first G-77 and China training course with UNCTAD and UNITAR, which built on the work of P166, and its methodology for curricula development and counted with the support of UNCTAD facilitators.

Madam President,

11. To conclude, our Group considers this capacity-building programme to be a valuable contribution and we encourage UNCTAD to continue enhancing its work and impact in line with the guidance of its mandates and of the Advisory Body.

I thank you, Madam President.