GA/SM/148

GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT ASKS REGIONAL GROUPS TO NAME BUREAU MEMBERS FOR PREPARATORY COMMITTEE OF FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

The President of the General Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia), met this morning with the chairmen of the five regional groups, to discuss setting up the Bureau of the Preparatory Committee for the 2001 high-level intergovernmental conference on financing for development, as called for in resolution 54/196 of 22 December 1999.

The President requested each of the five chairmen to consult with their members, and submit to him, as soon as possible, the names of three persons from each regional group to constitute the 15-member Bureau.

In adopting resolution 54/196, on high-level international intergovernmental consideration of financing for development, the Assembly decided to convene, in 2001, a high-level intergovernmental event of political decision-makers on financing for development, which would address national, international and systemic issues relating to financing for development in a holistic manner in the context of globalization and interdependence, and, by so doing, address development through the perspective of finance.

The Assembly decided to establish an intergovernmental Preparatory Committee, open to all States, to carry out the substantive preparations for the high-level event. In that connection, it decided to constitute a Bureau of the Preparatory Committee, consisting of 15 representatives of Member States, selected according to the principle of equitable geographical representation, to be presided over by two co-chairmen. The Assembly requested its President to begin consultations with Member States as soon as possible to elect the Bureau, having decided that the first organizational session of the Preparatory Committee should be held no later than early February 2000.

Attending the meeting were the following Ambassadors: Jose Luis Barbosa Leao Monteiro (Cape Verde), for the African States; Om Pradhan (Bhutan), for the Asian States; Peter Chkheidze (Georgia), for the Eastern European States; Dennie Wilson (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and Walter Balzan (Malta), for the Western European and other States.

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