Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

At the outset, let me, on behalf of the Zambian delegation, express our sincere gratitude to the Government and people of Ghana for the warm hospitality that has been accorded to us since our arrival into this beautiful city of Accra. I am honored to be accorded this opportunity to speak to this august gathering.

The theme for this Conference has come at an opportune time when countries, whether big or small, are grappling with the challenges of globalization.

The global economy is more integrated now than ever before with increased opportunities for market expansion, which has contributed to the growth and emergence of new dynamic players on the international scene, such as Brazil, China, India and several other developing countries in Asia and Latin America.

 

The recent improved performance in commodity prices has also contributed positively to the growth of most of the least developed countries, which have been growing at about 6% per annum on average over the past three years. However, we have not been able to translate this positive growth into poverty reduction, and improved socio-economic welfare of the majority of the population. For instance, in my own country Zambia, 67% of the population lives below the poverty datum line.

 

In this regard, it is not surprising that as we reach the mid-point of achieving the MDGs, most LDCs are off target and will not be able to achieve the set goals by 2015 without stepping up efforts at both national and international levels. Therefore we wish to applaud the UN Secretary-General’s Africa MDG Initiative which seeks to assist selected African countries meet their targets.

 

The challenges that Africa and LDCs face are well known and these include:

• • Their share in FDI inflows has remained minimal, for

instance out of the 1.3 billion US dollars global FDI inflow in 2006, Africa accounted for a meagre 2.7%, directed mainly to mineral, oil and gas exploration;

• • Most of our economies are vulnerable to climate change. In this regard, I wish to cite the recent experience of the southern Africa region concerning floods which destroyed infrastructure, swept away crops and left millions of people homeless.
• • The continued lack of infrastructure and institutional frameworks to support the productive sectors.

 

It is a well known fact that several pronouncements have been made at the international level to improve investment flows, market conditions and finance for development for least developed countries. However, the implementation of these declarations has not been fully met. It is our expectation that the developed countries and developing countries in a position to do so will live up to their commitments to grant duty free and quota free market access for products originating from LDCs as mandated by the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong China in December 2005. Additionally, LDCs are looking forward to an early completion of the negotiations under the Doha Development agenda, preferably no later than the end of this year.

Further, we would like to urge the international community and the development partners that have not done so to increase the level and improve the quality and delivery of development assistance in line with the Monterrey Consensus ODA targets and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness so as to facilitate the development process of our economies. The Aid for Trade initiative and the Enhanced Integrated Framework remain important instruments for addressing supply capacity constraints including strengthening productive capacities and developing institutional, human and infrastructure frameworks to facilitate trade. Therefore, their urgent and effective operationalization cannot be over emphasised.

 

I would like to acknowledge UNCTAD’s role in assisting developing countries in putting in place active policies to boost productive capacities and international competitiveness for the growth of the private sector.

In particular, the 2006 Blue Book on Best Practices on Investment Promotion and Facilitation of Zambia, which won the award in the category of ‘Smart Regulation’, was specifically designed to help my Government achieve the objective of creating a vibrant private sector that would be

exposed to competitive best practices at the international level.

 

This, Mr Chairman, represents an endorsement of UNCTAD’s positive role in assisting developing country governments to improve their investment environments. It is my delegation’s expectation that the outcome of this

Conference will provide UNCTAD with a renewed mandate and a clear and concrete action plan, with realistic and achievable targets, directed at addressing the challenges of globalization faced by developing countries, especially the LDCs.

The role of UNCTAD, in this regard, is very important and the outcome of this Conference should ensure that UNCTAD’s comparative advantage of providing its clients with ‘ahead of the curve’ research and analysis, as well as technical expertise on matters relating to trade and development, remains critical to the effective engagement in global economic affairs. 

The outcome of this Conference should, therefore, be a strengthened UNCTAD whose role in research and analysis, consensus building and technical assistance should be preserved. Indeed, there is need to take into account the changing global economy in order for the institution to remain

relevant and have a meaningful impact in our economies.

I thank you.