BRAZIL Informal Stocktaking Meeting of the ECOSOC on the Second UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries Statement by Permanent Representative and Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota 13 January 2015 New York Allow me to congratulate you for convening this stocktaking meeting on the Second United Nations Conference for Landlocked Developing Countries, as well as the Government of Austria through you for having so ably organized the event. I also congratulate the PR of Tunisia for his election as Vice-President of ECOSOC. Let me also thank the members of the bureau of the preparatory committee, presided over by Ambassadors Khiane Phansourivong, from the Lao PR, and Per Thöresson, from Sweden, as well as the competent team of the Secretariat led by Under-Secretary General Gyan Chandra Acharya, for having so ably conducted the membership towards a successful and ambitious outcome document. I would also like to congratulate all Landlocked Developing Countries for their persistent and active engagement. To all of you: our sincere respect and recognition. Since 2003, when the Almaty Program of Action was launched, much progress has taken place in the LLDCs. As stated in the outcome document, GDP growth rates have increased, policy reforms have been undertaken, transit and transport infrastructure has been developed and upgraded, and cooperation with development partners and transit developing countries has intensified.
However, the 2008 economic and financial crisis and the slow, uneven recovery since then have posed considerable challenges to the development efforts of LLDCs, including in realizing the Millennium Development Goals by this year. Reduced demand coupled with loose fiscal policies in advanced economies have caused currencies to appreciate in many developing countries, with considerable setbacks for the export performance of LLDCs, resulting in modest gains in terms of their share of world trade. In Vienna, Member States took a bigger, bolder step, with the launching of a new and comprehensive program of action that is set to guide the development efforts of landlocked developing countries over the next decade. The Brazilian Government has actively participated in consultations on this document and is honored to have contributed to this outcome. It is now up to all of us to ensure the full implementation of the final outcome document. The new and forward-looking Program of Action adopted in Vienna reflects the significant evolution in development cooperation since Almaty. It responds to recent changes in the international landscape, and points towards new promising perspectives for the future, as we approach the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations. The current year will be a watershed in the history of the Organization, a defining moment for the launching, in September, of the post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Vienna Program of Action addresses a significant number of issues pertaining to the challenges LLDCs must overcome to ensure their sustainable development. The Vienna Program of Action sets a new level of commitments and a new standard of follow-up to its implementation, based on action-oriented initiatives and evidence-based monitoring and assessment. Its structure and content resemble the commendable achievements of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, based on the definition of specific and concrete measures for implementation. Its innovative format and ambitious scope will contribute to integrating the specific needs of landlocked developing countries into the post-2015 development agenda. The new Program of Action recognizes the significant contribution that South- South cooperation can make in supporting the development efforts of LLDCs. While this element was not present in Almaty, it now figures prominently in the new section on means of implementation of the outcome document, adequately reflecting the spirit of solidarity and fraternal cooperation among equals that guides relations between developing countries. That notwithstanding, ODA will
remain for years to come the centerpiece for mobilizing indispensable financial flows to LLDCs. It comes as no surprise, in this regard, that the Vienna Program reiterates the call on development partners to urgently fulfill their ODA commitments to developing countries, especially LLDCs, in support of poverty eradication and sustainable development. We must work closely to ensure that ODA commitments are not only met but further strengthened in the run-up to the Conference of Financing for Development, to be held next July in Addis Ababa. It is time for a corresponding ambitious institutional follow-up to the FfD process, responsible for measuring and monitoring the implementation of commitments, including ODA. Under a different framework, South-South cooperation plays a complementary but increasingly important role, promoting closer ties and integration between LLDCs and their transit neighbors. Its complimentary nature has been recognized, without exception, in all General Assembly resolutions pertaining to the issue, as well as the most recently adopted report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing. Up-scaling the UN Office of South-South Cooperation through additional financial, human and budgetary resources under the auspices of the UNDP, as requested by GA resolution 69/239, can definitely contribute to further strengthening and mainstreaming South-South cooperation initiatives and projects throughout the UN development system, for the benefit of developing countries, including LLDCs. Strengthening South-South cooperation is a Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) mandate that could further contribute to implement the Vienna Plan of Action. Allow me to refer in passing to a landlocked neighbor and partner in MERCOSUR, namely Paraguay, with whom Brazil has established a strong cooperative relationship, including through projects at the bilateral and subregional levels, aimed at improving the country's access to the sea and its integration with the region and beyond. Priority 4 of VPoA, entitled regional integration and cooperation, provides an excellent framework for further strengthening this relationship. South America constitutes a region of the Americas with landlocked countries, which led to the establishment of the South American Infrastructure and Planning Council of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Through this Council, Brazil has supported integration projects with high potential for generating synergies
in the region, such as the establishment of road links between Paraguay and Bolivia and ports in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and the construction power lines linking Itaipu Dam, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, to Villa Hayes and Asunción, in Paraguay. Brazil granted this project around US$ 400 million through a MERCOSUR's Trust Fund that manages a US$ 1.4 billion portfolio for structural convergence (FOCEM), with an emphasis on most vulnerable economies, such as Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as Bolivia as a new member. Brazil takes very seriously indeed its special responsibilities as transit country. The Vienna Program of Action can be considered a substantive step forward. Landlockedness exposes LLDCS to greater external vulnerabilities, impacting on their logistics costs, investment attraction potential and productive integration opportunities, thereby increasing the stakes for economic growth. However, these barriers cannot be overcome by trade facilitation measures alone. Broader issues need to be addressed, such as structural economic transformation, the development of energy and ICT infrastructure, and international trade and finance from a systemic point of view. Landlockedness is a structural condition countries cannot "graduate" from. This is why "Structural Economic Transformation" as a stand-alone priority of the Vienna Program of Action is so important. It establishes a basis for supporting sustained productivity gains and domestic economic growth in LLDCS, promoting value-addition and diversification. Energy infrastructure should provide the material basis for manufacturing and industrial growth, while increased broadband access will act as a catalyst to disseminate knowledge, skills and best practices. The WTO Bali package of December 2013 should be fully implemented as soon as possible, and the WTO needs to move swiftly towards a conclusion of the Doha Round, fully delivering on its development-oriented mandate, with special focus on agriculture, because this is where the gains are higher for a majority of developing countries including many LLDCs. Facilitated accession to the WTO for landlocked developing countries, as well as adequate treatment of their specific needs in multilateral and regional trade negotiations are vital measures. We hope these issues can be more adequately addressed in future reviews. We call on developed countries to continue working on them in Geneva. The WTO must take the lead in defining multilateral rules for transit transport, including provision for special and
differentiated treatment, so as to effectively contribute to the economic development of landlocked developing countries. We will continue working with LLDCS bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally, including in the post-2015 scenario towards the full implementation of the ambitious and actionable Vienna Program of Action with the shared goal of sustainable development. Thank you.