UN envoy welcomes Doha Declaration on support for developing countries

A senior United Nations envoy today welcomed the outcome of the Second South Summit of developing nations as "a valuable contribution to South-South cooperation and a positive focus on the world's most vulnerable countries."

Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, hailed the Doha Declaration, adopted by members of the Group of 77 and China at the conclusion of the Second South Summit in Doha late last week.

The Declaration emphasized, among other things, the need to urgently meet the agreed Official Development Assistance (ODA) target of 0.7 per cent of donor countries' GNI, and underscored the importance of strengthening the World Trade Organization (WTO) with special and differential treatment for developing countries, and the least developed countries (LDCs), in particular.

While welcoming the outcome of the Summit, Mr. Chowdhury urged the international community to adopt an effective, comprehensive, equitable and development-oriented solution to debt problems, particularly through 100 per cent debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries.

The "G-77", now numbering 132 member states, calls itself the largest Third World coalition in the UN system. The association provides the means for the developing world to articulate its collective economic interests and enhances its joint negotiating capacity on major international economic issues in the UN system, it says. It also promotes economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.

The Summit in Doha focused on sustainable development in the countries of the South and alleviating poverty in least developed countries. The first South-South Summit was held in Havana, Cuba, five years ago.