Africa-Press – Uganda. The Third South Summit of the Group of 77 (G-77) + China closed yesterday, with President Museveni, the new chair, calling on member states to cooperate and work together for the prosperity of all.
“All people of the world should be in a good position, should be prosperous. The only way you can guarantee progress sustainably is to enable everybody to participate in wealth creation, by producing goods or services,” he said.
“We the countries of the south can cooperate in producing goods and services… We also want trade links with our NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) and G-77 countries. We buy from them, they buy from us. That will push prosperity for all of us,” he added
The two-day summit was running under the banner, “leaving no one behind”.
G-77 was established on June 15, 1964 by 77 developing countries. Although the members have increased, the original name was retained due to its historic significance.
“The Group of 77 is the largest intergovernmental organisation of developing countries in the United Nations, which provides the means for the countries of the South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system, and promote South-South cooperation for development,” the organisation’s website states.
At the closing session, Mr Museveni underscored the value of peace in advancing development among developing countries.
“In the one year which you have entrusted me to head the organisation production of goods and services, dealing with the issue of markets and then the issue of infrastructure. But this assumes that we have peace amongst ourselves because if we don’t have peace we will not achieve this so I will have to be in touch with some of these brothers who have tensions,” the President said.
Uganda hosted the 19th Non-Aligned Movement and the Third South summits back to back from January 15.
About 1,500 delegates, including 15 presidents, the president of the UN General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General and the chairperson of the African Union Commission, gathered in Kampala for what organisers termed as a successful undertaking.
The NAM summit, which brings together 120 countries, ended last Saturday with the adoption of the Kampala Declaration, the Outcome Document and the Political Declaration on Palestine.
Uganda’s chairmanship will be guided by the Outcome Document adopted by the member states.
Mr Adonia Ayabare, Uganda’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, said the document addresses mainly economic and social issues facing developing countries.
They include calls for the reform of the global financing systems, progress of the Sustainable Development Goals, interstate trade and climate change.
“The substance of the documents was very good. Negotiated hard but on time…the logistics were also good. It was good. We did two summits back to back. We did not know when we were planning how that would go,” Mr Ayebare said.
“The two [NAM and G77+China] reinforce each other. We have a mechanism called the joint coordination mechanism and this is the first time that there is one chair so this is the right time to implement the two working together,” he added.
According to Mr Ayabare, the significance of the two groupings is key, at a time when the world is encumbered by geo-political tensions, new and emerging challenges and loud calls for reform of global governance.
“We control the UN General Assembly. G77+ China and NAM control the world parliament. It has moral and legal authority. This is the largest gathering of countries. We have the numbers, they cannot ignore us,” he said.
I don’t expect CHOGM-like scandalssays Nakyobe.
The chief executive officer of the National Organising Committee of the summits, Ms Lucy Nakyobe, expressed confidence that there will be no scandals in the aftermath of the summits.
“I don’t expect such issues to come out. With CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting), there was a lot of procurement that went on. This, we didn’t have a lot of procurements. The only procurement was the hotel and the conference facility. I don’t expect anything like audit queries,” Ms Nakyobe, who is also the head of Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet, said.
She said Shs53.5b went into organising the summits.
“So far we have spent Shs40b. We are still chasing for the balance from Finance. Some of the things have been partly paid as we wait for that supplementary. The President’s Office signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with different ministries, and they will account to the PS (permanent secretary) office of the President,” she said.
“We had the commitment to deliver. We had the support of the President. We had subcommittees. Mine was to make sure drive them in their roles. Mine was to keep whipping. I am very good at whipping,” she added.
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