Statement by H.E. Mr. Esmaeil BAGHAEI HAMANEH, Ambassador and Permanent Representative the Islamic Republic of Iran 20th Meeting of the Council of Representatives of the South Centre Geneva, 30 April 2019  بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم Mr. Convenor, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, At the outset, allow me to join the other colleagues to express my appreciation over the tireless efforts of H.E. Mr. Abdul Samad Minty, Convenor of the Council of Representatives of the South Center. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the Vice – Convenor as well as Executive Director and his team in the South Center for their contributions to the Centre in various areas of work. In fact, South Centre is an expression of the South–South Cooperation and at this juncture when the south encounters unilateralism as a threat to multilateralism at global level. it deems necessary for developing countries to be more consolidated and united to protect their common interests. The South Center, as a Think-Thank, plays crucial role in converging positions of the developing countries, leading into consensus in variety of paramount international issues. Against this backdrop, I would like to make several points.   Ladies and Gentlemen; Developing countries through international cooperation efforts have achieved success in recent era but the faced challenges as well. For instance, in 1992 during the Rio Conference on environment and development, the South succeeded to incorporate highlight the idea of “economic development” into negotiation process, tackling environment crisis and succeeded to establish Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) as a key principle in the decision making process. But as it is seen the North has been endeavoring to water down CBDR. While according to many estimates, including by the UN: South needs $1000 billion USD per year to tackle development and environmental challenges including for mitigation and adaptation. Since 2008 when the international and financial crisis took place, the challenges stemming from the crisis are still remained, creating more challenges to the developing countries especially those which do not have diversified and resilient economy. As a sample, external debt crisis became a major blow to many South countries in 1980s, 1990s up to early 2000s and maintain to leave high burden on developing countries. During the second session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Financing for Development on 7-9 November 2018 in Geneva, UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant agreed that the facts were worrying. “By the end of 2017, the ratio of global debt to global GDP was almost one-third higher than it was on the eve of the world's worst global financial crisis in 2008,” She also said that the debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 70% in a fifth of emerging and middle-income countries and was more than 60% in low-income countries. “This leads to the following observation: in mid-2018, the number of low-income developing countries in over-indebtedness or at high risk of it reached 31 – as against 13 in 2013. The number has practically tripled, she added.   Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, On WTO, as you are aware, the Doha Round was launched in 2001 with the promise of putting development at the center. In addition, the South wished that WTO will address the imbalances especially in agriculture, subsidies etc. But the North stressed on some other issues, such as: investment, procurement, competition. While there is no tangible progress so far in tackling the differences, WTO is facing new challenges such as unilateralism and imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers on trade from the part of some Member State, which are against the reson d’étre of the Organization and harmful to its main objectives. At MC11 in Buenos Aires, the deliberations led to a few decisions. WTO is now facing with serious challenges. with debates centering on whether Doha has a future, whether agriculture will ever be reformed, whether the direct development issues of SDT and food security will ever get a fair hearing, and whether multilateralism have a place or no place in the present multilateral system. These are some key challenges that the South is facing with and they all require to be well understood, so that the developing countries become able to take a unified position on the issues to protect their interests.   Ladies and Gentlemen; The challenges mentioned above is a part of the key challenges we face today and even got exacerbated when the unilateralism especially unilateral economic, trade and financial coercive measures including illegal and unlawful sanctions are exercised by US and protectionist measures are practiced by the same country through misusing security exception article. I am, therefore, of the view that two elements should be taken into consideration seriously south – south cooperation should be reinvigorated. Second the crucial role of the South Center should be more fortified. I am hopeful that the South Center will continue to assist developing countries through its research activities and technical assistance and take up the sensitive issues in close consultations with its Member states and even do not confine itself to the research but also go beyond to help developing countries unify their position on the international common concerned issues.  Concluding my words, The Islamic Republic of Iran as a founding member of the South Center and while supporting the Center activities, expresses its readiness to cooperate with the center as well as the Member states to pave the way for meeting the present and future challenges.    I thank you all