Plenary

STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR VANU GOPALA MENON, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SINGAPORE TO THE UNITED NATIONS ON BEHALF OF THE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE GROUP (3G) AT THE INFORMAL PLENARY MEETING OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON THE OUTCOME OF THE G-20 SUMMIT IN SEOUL, 16 NOVEMBER 2010

Mr President,

I would like to begin by thanking you for organizing today's meeting. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General, HE Ambassador Ho-Young Ahn from the Republic of Korea and HE Ambassador Jean-David Levitte from France for joining us today and for addressing this meeting. I am making this statement on behalf of the 27 members of the Global Governance Group (3G)*.

* The 3G comprises the following Member States of the United Nations: Bahamas, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Barbados, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kuwait, the Principality of Liechtenstein, Malaysia, the Principality of Monaco, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, the Republic of the Philippines, the State of Qatar, the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of San Marino, the Republic of Senegal, the Republic of Singapore, the Republic of Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. The 3G's paper entitled "Strengthening the Framework for G-20 Engagement of Non-members" was circulated as a United Nations document (reference number A/64/706 dated 11 March 2010).

I believe that this is the first time that the most recent host and the next host of a G-20 Summit have jointly briefed the UN membership on the work of the G-20. In the process, we have been able to learn not only what had transpired at the recent G-20 Seoul Summit but also what the next host, France, plans to achieve with its Chairmanship of the G-20. The 3G would like to commend the two Ambassadors for conducting this briefing in a timely fashion, so soon after the conclusion of the Seoul G-20 Summit.

The 3G takes note of the outcomes from the G-20 Seoul Summit, including the Seoul Action Plan. We welcome the G-20's commitment to implement a range of structural reforms that will boost and sustain global demand, foster job creation and increase the potential for strong, sustainable and balanced global growth which is important for all our countries. The Seoul Action Plan presents a comprehensive set of actions, which when implemented, would help put the world economy on a steady path towards the common goal of shared growth.

Going forward, the G-20 has to go beyond the reform of international financial institutions and better coordination of fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies to a fundamental restructuring of the real economy. For this restructuring to take place, the international trading system must be kept open. Only then can markets make the adjustment and prices find their right levels. In fighting protectionism in all its forms, the leadership of the G-20 is critical. For precisely this reason, we must not allow interest in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) to flag. The G-20, which together accounts for 80% of international trade, has to play a leadership role in breaking the current impasse in the DDA negotiations. In particular, we must ensure that the needs of developing countries are met. In this connection, the 3G notes the commitment by the G-20 to make all the necessary efforts to conclude the DDA and their recognition of 2011 as a critical window of opportunity in this regard. The 3G looks forward to engaging with the G-20 and other UN Member States on these issues.

The 3G welcomes the G-20's focus on the green economy as an integral part of sustainable growth. Promotion of clean energy is essential for addressing global climate change as well as for assuring long-term energy security. In this regard, the 3G underlines the importance of technology transfer and capacity building in developing countries.

The 3G commends the G-20 for their focus on development and their consideration of the 3G's inputs, submitted to the G-20 Working Group on Development on 27 September 2010. The 3G welcomes the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth which sets out the G-20's commitment to work in partnership with other developing countries to help build their capacity to achieve and maximize their growth potential. We note that the Seoul Consensus will complement the G-20's commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

In this regard, we support the G-20's plans to address the most significant bottlenecks to growth in developing countries, which have hampered infrastructure development, human resource development, trade, private investment and job creation, and food security among others. We note that dealing with the challenges of urbanisation will be among the key issues for many developing countries, especially those moving up the development ladder, in the coming years and a key driver for development. It is estimated that 60% of the global population in 2030 (4.9 billion people) will be living in urban centres, mostly in developing countries. Given this, an important way to help communities, especially in the developing world, is to foster the growth of liveable cities. Urbanisation as an organic process of development can be healthy or unhealthy. Cities can be energy-efficient, knowledge-intensive centres of production, education and sustainable living, or they can be hell-holes festering with poor education, unemployment, inequality, crime and pollution. All of us have a vested interest in the growth of liveable cities in the developing world. We hope that fostering liveable cities will become a major objective of the next G-20 Summit as this will translate into real and pragmatic development for the citizens of many developing countries. We look forward to the G-20 working in close collaboration with the UN, the World Bank as well as other relevant development agencies in promoting solutions to these challenges.

Finally, the 3G welcomes the G-20's pledge to increase their efforts to conduct consultation activities in a more systematic way, in line with their recognition of the broad impact of their decisions and the necessity to consult with the wider international community. We also appreciate the Republic of Korea's able chairmanship of the G-20 and their efforts to reach out to non-G-20 countries, including the 3G, at the UN and in other fora. We commend the Republic of Korea's decision to exercise "variable geometry" in inviting some non-G-20 countries to the Seoul Summit and we hope that future hosts of G20 Summits will continue this practice. The 3G appreciates the efforts being undertaken by France to consult non-G-20 countries in preparing the agenda for the G-20 in 2011 and we hope that they will continue with these efforts. The 3G looks forward to working closely with France as it takes up the Presidency of the G20.

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