Mr. President,

The Chinese Delegation thanks the Secretary-General for his report on the triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system. Our thanks also go to Mr. ... for his introductory remarks. Now, I want to share with you my views on this issue.

Since the 1998 triennial comprehensive policy review, the world economy has continued to undergo enormous changes. Economic and financial integration, combined with ICTs, has fundamentally altered the environment for and dynamics of development. All this has brought both opportunities and challenges to the operational activities for development of the United Nations system. To adapt to the changes in the environment for development, all programmes and funds of the UN development system have made a series of reforms and re-identified their priorities. We have noted with satisfaction that the focus of the UN operational activities has shifted to national capacity-building and poverty eradication. At the same time, management has been strengthened and more emphasis has been placed on results of projects. I express my congratulations on the achievements in the past three years by operational activities for development of the United Nations system.

Mr. President,

No matter how the world-wide environment for development changes, the UN operational activities must maintain its universality, neutrality, multilateralism, flexibility, and voluntary and grant nature, and continue to play an irreplaceable role in national capacity-building and poverty eradication. In our view, the purpose of the UN operational activities is to help developing countries to step up their socio-economic development. Therefore, they must stick to the country-driven principle and conform to country-specific needs and development policy priorities, so as to give recipient countries a stronger sense of ownership. The coordination and cooperation among UN agencies at the national level should effectively strengthen capacity-building of recipients and serve to enhance the whole system's flexibility and responsiveness to the latter's needs.

Mr. President,

The UN Millennium Summit in 2000 was a new milestone for operational activities for development of the United Nations system. The summit has drawn, in the Declaration it adopted, a blueprint for the eradication of poverty in the world, planning to reduce by half the global poverty-stricken population by 2015. In our view, it is now time for concrete actions. First, developing countries should formulate the order of their development priorities and a timetable for poverty eradication as suitable to their respective national context. Second, the international community should work out applicable assistance and aid plans on the basis of studying the specific needs of recipient countries. Third, donor countries should fulfill their political commitments and increase ODA in accordance with relevant UN resolutions, so as to provide a financial guarantee for the successful realization of the poverty eradication goals set by the UN Millennium Summit. However, up to now, no very visible progress has been achieved in any of the above three aspects. Especially, in recent years the core resources of all the funds and programmes under the UN development system have either decreased by the year or failed to increase, leading to a serious lack of financial resources for the operational activities, which directly undermines the progress and results of the aid projects. Facts have proven in the past few years that operational activities for development have been weakened gradually rather than strengthened, a situation incompatible to the increasing needs of recipients. We hope that the UN development system will continue to work hard to reverse this worrying situation as soon as possible. Otherwise, it would be difficult to obtain the poverty eradication goals set by the UN Millennium Summit.

Mr. President,

As part of the overall UN reform and in order to simplify procedures for better coordination and efficiency, the UN development system began in 1997 to formulate CCA and UNDAF for recipient countries and set up common premises in some countries. We support all the efforts made by the UN development system and feel satisfied with its achievements in this aspect. However, among the many frameworks that exist within the present system, some are very similar. We believe that in order to avoid unnecessary repetition and confusion and simplify procedures for better efficiency, we do not really need so many frameworks and only those recognized by recipient countries and proven to be applicable should be kept in use. And these good frameworks may be continuously improved through practice.

Thank you, Mr. President.