The Permanent Representative (PR) of Bangladesh to the UN Ambassador Masud Bin Momen stressed the importance of the role of the Southern countries in the decision making process of international economy. He was speaking at the event to observe the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation (41st Anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action) at the UNHQs, today. The PR said, “There must be a more central role for the South in the international economic decision-making. It is important to recognize that to bolster South-South Cooperation (SSC), a fundamental change in the global financial and economic governance structure needs to be initiated”.
Aiming to boost up SSC Ambassador Masud also flagged some other points such as delivering on ODA commitments, extending the financial support from new regional & global banks, accelerating technology transfer, implementing preferential trading rules of WTO and support from the reformed United Nations Development System (UNDS) to SSC initiatives.
The PR reiterated Bangladesh’s proposal for establishing a Ministerial Forum of Southern countries under the aegis of SSC which was proposed for the first time at BAPA+40 Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina by the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh.
Ambassador Masud also referred to the South-South Centre on Knowledge and Innovation which is going to be set up by Bangladesh.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, President of the High-level Committee on SSC Adonia Ayebare, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner and Envoy of the Secretary General on South-South Cooperation Jorge Chediek spoke at this event.