Report of the UNCTAD Secretary General
67th Virtual Session of the Trade and Development Board
Statement by
H. E. Mr. Javad Amin-Mansour
Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative
The Islamic Republic of Iran
Item 2: Report of the UNCTAD Secretary General
67th Virtual Session of the Trade and Development Board
Geneva - 2 July, 2020
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
Mr. President,
My delegation listened with great interest to the Report of the Secretary General on the UNCTAD activities in 2019. We appreciate the efforts of Mr. Kituyi and his team in the secretariat for implementing the UNCTAD mandates and thank them for presenting the Report. My delegation associates itself with the statements made by the distinguished Ambassador of Zambia in her capacity as coordinator of G77 and distinguished representative of Iraq as coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Group under this agenda Item.
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The written Report belongs to the pre-Covid 19 era, while significant developments have occurred recently. Hence, I focus now on the issues contained in the SG report and refer to the new circumstances, due to the impacts of Covid-19, under the Agenda Item 3 in this meeting.
As in the past, my Government attaches great importance to the three pillars of UNCTAD mandate, namely, consensus building, research and analysis, and capacity building. This is our firm position that due to the special needs of developing countries, the secretariat should be adequately supported by skillful staff and additional and predictable financial resources to achieve its mandates.
Mr. President,
The growth of national, regional and global e-commerce sales is a positive and natural phenomenon in the context of globalization. Moreover, the increased demand for electronic components used in internet-of-things devices clearly depicts the considerable role of information and communications technology in all walks of life across the globe, including in trade. The annual growth, by 7–8%, of the export of online services over the past decade, is promising. Such developments reduce the costs and will lead to the utilization of less and less natural resources, and boosting the economies.
However, the enjoyment of required laws and regulations to meet the emerging related challenges at national and international levels is far from reach. According to the report, only 58% of the countries enjoy data protection and privacy laws and only 52% of the states have regulations to protect online consumers. The stagnation of global trade and economic output from $1.5 trillion in 2018 to $1.3 trillion in 2019 as well as the 13% decline in global FDI flows for the third consecutive year are counted as setbacks. It goes without saying that among others, unilateralism, unilateral coercive measures and nationalist populism, their adverse impacts on the multilateral trading system, and the relevant organization, WTO, in recent years, were effective in creating such unsatisfactory economic trends and conditions.
Mr. President,
Given the huge adverse impacts of the natural disasters, such as: drought, dust storms, floods, hurricanes, and earthquake, as well as playing host to 70% of the world refugees on the economy and process of development in developing countries, we request UNCTAD secretariat to pay more attention to these important factors in the annual reports, which hinder seriously the efforts of the developing countries to achieve sustainable development.
Mr. President,
In spite the ongoing transformations, the need to reverse the negative socio-economic trends, to bridge the existing digital divide and to minimize the increasing inequalities within and among the countries is still a valid point. Hence, the international community should accelerate its endeavors for capacity building enhancement, setting appropriate laws and regulations on data protection and privacy to the benefit of all, maintaining adequate national space for policy making, creating an enabling environment at global level and finally providing means of implementation. In this process, one cannot turn a blind eye on the crucial role that UNCTAD can play within its mandate at national, regional and international levels.
We look forward to participating in UNCTAD 15 in Barbados and formulating the outcome, which should be a cornerstone for our future cooperation and activities.
I thank you Mr. President.