Mr. Chair,

1. I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and would like to thank Mr. Chandramauli Ramanatha, Controller and Assistant Secretary General and Mr. Abdallah Bachar Bong, Chair of ACABQ for sharing their respective reports.

2. We reiterate our deep concern over the current state of global food insecurity, which is exacerbating humanitarian needs and increasing the risk of famine around the world. A sudden spike in global prices of wheat, other food supplies and essential fertilizers has put food security of many vulnerable countries at risk.

3. The Group of 77 & China welcomes the constructive engagement of this committee to adopt the resolution A/77/3 on 27th October, 2022 to enter into commitment authority amounting to $3.5 million for the year 2022 for operationalisation of the two initiatives of the Secretary General: the Trade Facilitation Initiative and Black Sea Grain Initiative, which promote the access and safe transportation of food products and fertilizers to the world market.

4. We note the total resource requirement for the year 2023 stands at $10.9 million, in which $2.3 million would be required to support the Memorandum of understanding on Trade facilitation and $7.89 million would be required for Black Sea Grain initiative for the year 2023.

5. Our Group expects the same constructive spirit from all stake holders to take into account the urgent needs of the developing countries. Our group proposes that we can effectively achieve the fruits of these initiatives, if we could strengthen the Secretary General in provision of the required resources for the year 2023.

6. In conclusion, the Group stands ready to engage constructively on this agenda item during the upcoming informal consultations.

I thank you, Mr. Chair.