Group of 77 and China
STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY H.E.
MR. SACHA LLORENTI, AMBASSADOR, PERMANENT
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA TO
THE UNITED NATIONS, CHAIR OF THE GROUP OF 77, AT THE 11TH
SESSION OF THE OPEN WORKING GROUP ON SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS) ON "INDUSTRIALIZATION AND
PROMOTING EQUALITY BETWEEN NATIONS, AND SUSTAINABLE
CITIES AND HUMAN SETTLEMENTS" (New York, 7 May 2014)
Distinguished Co-Chairs,
1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
2. As the Group has stated before, industry today accounts for over 31 percent of global GDP and
is a creator of jobs and an engine for growth and prosperity. As such, industrialization must be
decoupled from increased raw material use and negative environmental impact by becoming
inclusive and sustainable. Inclusive and sustainable industrialization strategies need to be
supported by an enabling environment and adequate policy space, which are also essential to
achieving poverty eradication and sustainable development overall.
3. The Group again underscores that technology plays a key role in promoting inclusive and
sustainable industrialization. Developing countries require increased access to technology transfer
on favourable terms, including through concessionary and preferential terms, in order to shift to a
more sustainable development path. It is imperative that the international community takes urgent
actions to bridge the technological divide so as to promote endogenous technology development
and domestic innovation for the objectives of industrialization and inclusive growth across the
developing world. These actions include reforming the international Intellectual Property regime
with a view to facilitating technological catch-up for developing countries, as well as concerted
efforts to establishing the technology transfer mechanism, including the creation of a Technology
Bank for the LDCs.
4. The Group stresses that it is not only industrial diversity that is fundamental to achieving
sustainable development, but rather economic diversification more broadly. The ability of
developing countries to move from commodity production to industrial production by raising the
share of manufacturing and upgrading industrial technology and capability is paramount. Thus
"economic diversification towards industrialization" is a more accurate phrasing, taking into note
that few if any countries have reached developed status without a sustained period of economic
diversification and industrialization.
5. The Group strongly believes that industrialization should be addressed in a differentiated
manner that takes into account the varying industrial capacities and resources between developed
and developing countries that imply significantly different degrees of resource use and pollutants.
Due to the fact that many developing countries do not currently have a significant industrial base, it
is important to emphasize the economic component of industrial development, not only the
resource and environmental aspects of industry, which are also important but not sufficient.
6. Regarding the means of implementation, this is a crucial component. To achieve industrial
development, developing countries require several types of means of implementation. This
includes international financial resources including aid especially for low income countries and
concessional loans for developing countries in general; market access for industrial products
originating from developing countries; access to various types of technologies at affordable prices;
access to environmentally sound technologies also at affordable prices; and trade and IPR rules
that are consistent with and not hinder the process of industrial development of developing
countries.
7. The Group reiterates from its previous statement in November 2013 that there is a strong case
to have a SDG on reducing inequality and adopting social protection policies and measures.
Inequality is fundamentally linked to poverty eradication, which is the central and overarching goal
for the Group of 77 and China.
8. Studies show that income inequality among countries is higher than within countries. There
should be international action to reverse the trend and thus to reduce international inequality. Other
aspects of international cooperation, namely means of implementation and global partnership for
development, should also be agreed on under the goal of reducing inequality.
9. Reversal of the universal trend of growing income inequality calls for reversing the secular
decline in the share of labor income in most countries. For the Group, this goal could be pursued
through various means to establish a level playing field between labor and capital, including
greater international mobility of labor, regulation of international financial markets and capital
movements, more equitable taxation of wage income and incomes from capital and financial
assets, prevention of tax competition and a code of conduct for Transnational Corporations.
10. In developing countries, inequality needs be tackled by pursuing policies of inclusive economic
growth. This needs to be coupled with enhanced investments in socio-economic infrastructure and
human resource development, in particular, education, health, housing and sanitation.
11. The Group of 77 and China would like to express and insist that sustainable cities and human
settlement will be a major development challenge over the next several decades. Humanity is now
half urban, with projections that some 70 per cent of the world's population will live in cities by
2050, with rural-urban drift occurring largely in developing countries. The grim reality of
approximately one billion people living in urban slums highlights the gravity of the challenges. Poor
people living in slum houses in unhealthy environments, which co-exist with modern high-rise
buildings in many developing countries, is a stark contrast that depicts poverty and inequality - two
important issues that should have priority in the post-2015 development agenda.
12. We would like to recall that Sustainable urban development and human settlement require
transformative policies at multiple levels of governance. It requires a multi-sectorial, multistakeholder
approach that engages all relevant stakeholders in a transparent and inclusive
manner. In this regard, we call for new modalities of interaction between nations at the international
level, as well as between central and local governments at the national level, in order to fulfill their
respective roles as governmental stakeholders in global efforts on sustainability. Other non-state
actors also play important complementary roles. At the local level, city planners should tackle urban
development challenges through inclusive policies that favour people-centred objectives and
participatory decision-making that include the disadvantaged and marginalized members of
society
I thank you.
MR. SACHA LLORENTI, AMBASSADOR, PERMANENT
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA TO
THE UNITED NATIONS, CHAIR OF THE GROUP OF 77, AT THE 11TH
SESSION OF THE OPEN WORKING GROUP ON SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS) ON "INDUSTRIALIZATION AND
PROMOTING EQUALITY BETWEEN NATIONS, AND SUSTAINABLE
CITIES AND HUMAN SETTLEMENTS" (New York, 7 May 2014)
Distinguished Co-Chairs,
1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
2. As the Group has stated before, industry today accounts for over 31 percent of global GDP and
is a creator of jobs and an engine for growth and prosperity. As such, industrialization must be
decoupled from increased raw material use and negative environmental impact by becoming
inclusive and sustainable. Inclusive and sustainable industrialization strategies need to be
supported by an enabling environment and adequate policy space, which are also essential to
achieving poverty eradication and sustainable development overall.
3. The Group again underscores that technology plays a key role in promoting inclusive and
sustainable industrialization. Developing countries require increased access to technology transfer
on favourable terms, including through concessionary and preferential terms, in order to shift to a
more sustainable development path. It is imperative that the international community takes urgent
actions to bridge the technological divide so as to promote endogenous technology development
and domestic innovation for the objectives of industrialization and inclusive growth across the
developing world. These actions include reforming the international Intellectual Property regime
with a view to facilitating technological catch-up for developing countries, as well as concerted
efforts to establishing the technology transfer mechanism, including the creation of a Technology
Bank for the LDCs.
4. The Group stresses that it is not only industrial diversity that is fundamental to achieving
sustainable development, but rather economic diversification more broadly. The ability of
developing countries to move from commodity production to industrial production by raising the
share of manufacturing and upgrading industrial technology and capability is paramount. Thus
"economic diversification towards industrialization" is a more accurate phrasing, taking into note
that few if any countries have reached developed status without a sustained period of economic
diversification and industrialization.
5. The Group strongly believes that industrialization should be addressed in a differentiated
manner that takes into account the varying industrial capacities and resources between developed
and developing countries that imply significantly different degrees of resource use and pollutants.
Due to the fact that many developing countries do not currently have a significant industrial base, it
is important to emphasize the economic component of industrial development, not only the
resource and environmental aspects of industry, which are also important but not sufficient.
6. Regarding the means of implementation, this is a crucial component. To achieve industrial
development, developing countries require several types of means of implementation. This
includes international financial resources including aid especially for low income countries and
concessional loans for developing countries in general; market access for industrial products
originating from developing countries; access to various types of technologies at affordable prices;
access to environmentally sound technologies also at affordable prices; and trade and IPR rules
that are consistent with and not hinder the process of industrial development of developing
countries.
7. The Group reiterates from its previous statement in November 2013 that there is a strong case
to have a SDG on reducing inequality and adopting social protection policies and measures.
Inequality is fundamentally linked to poverty eradication, which is the central and overarching goal
for the Group of 77 and China.
8. Studies show that income inequality among countries is higher than within countries. There
should be international action to reverse the trend and thus to reduce international inequality. Other
aspects of international cooperation, namely means of implementation and global partnership for
development, should also be agreed on under the goal of reducing inequality.
9. Reversal of the universal trend of growing income inequality calls for reversing the secular
decline in the share of labor income in most countries. For the Group, this goal could be pursued
through various means to establish a level playing field between labor and capital, including
greater international mobility of labor, regulation of international financial markets and capital
movements, more equitable taxation of wage income and incomes from capital and financial
assets, prevention of tax competition and a code of conduct for Transnational Corporations.
10. In developing countries, inequality needs be tackled by pursuing policies of inclusive economic
growth. This needs to be coupled with enhanced investments in socio-economic infrastructure and
human resource development, in particular, education, health, housing and sanitation.
11. The Group of 77 and China would like to express and insist that sustainable cities and human
settlement will be a major development challenge over the next several decades. Humanity is now
half urban, with projections that some 70 per cent of the world's population will live in cities by
2050, with rural-urban drift occurring largely in developing countries. The grim reality of
approximately one billion people living in urban slums highlights the gravity of the challenges. Poor
people living in slum houses in unhealthy environments, which co-exist with modern high-rise
buildings in many developing countries, is a stark contrast that depicts poverty and inequality - two
important issues that should have priority in the post-2015 development agenda.
12. We would like to recall that Sustainable urban development and human settlement require
transformative policies at multiple levels of governance. It requires a multi-sectorial, multistakeholder
approach that engages all relevant stakeholders in a transparent and inclusive
manner. In this regard, we call for new modalities of interaction between nations at the international
level, as well as between central and local governments at the national level, in order to fulfill their
respective roles as governmental stakeholders in global efforts on sustainability. Other non-state
actors also play important complementary roles. At the local level, city planners should tackle urban
development challenges through inclusive policies that favour people-centred objectives and
participatory decision-making that include the disadvantaged and marginalized members of
society
I thank you.
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