Download Important Document

The Press

The Members States Of The Group Of 77

Emir to open Second South Summit today
06/15/2005
Source ::: Agencies

DOHA: The Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani will open the two-day Second South Summit of G77 plus China today.

Doha was in a virtual lockdown yesterday as dozens of heads of state arrived for the summit. These include UAE President H H Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahrain King H M Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Algerian President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Khaleda Zia, Sudan President Omar Al Bashir, Somalia’s President Abdullah Yousuf Ahmed, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh, President Of Union Of Comoros Azali Assoumani, President Of Republic Of Mozambique Armando Guebuza, El Salvador Vice President Ana Vilma Al Banees Cobar, President Of Togolese Republic Faure Eyadema, and President of Republic of Botswana Fetus Mogae.

Helicopters and patrol boats covered the sea approaches, as motorcades took leaders to their hotels. Among those presidents expected were British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Syria’s Bashar Al Assad.

The Group of 77 developing nations and China are to call on wealthy countries to honour pledges of additional aid to close the gap between rich and poor at the summit.

Qatar initiative

Qatar will call for creating a fund for the poor countries of the South and will provide QR20m as initial deposit for the fund.

A draft resolution approved by foreign ministers at a preparatory meeting yesterday calls on rich countries to meet their obligations by raising official development assistance (ODA) to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product. The target was set by the United Nations several years ago but most industrialised countries are still a long way from meeting it. The 132-member bloc is also demanding that between 0.15 per cent and 0.20 per cent of ODA be directed to least developed countries.

The draft declaration also calls for more debt relief for developing countries, including the cancellation of all government debt owed by least developed countries. Ministers welcomed a decision by the industrialised nations to write off some debt but said it should come with no strings attached.

Finance ministers of the Group of Eight agreed on Saturday to wipe out $40bn of debt owed by 18 poor nations in Africa and Latin America. Algerian presidential envoy Abdelaziz Belkhadem called on wealthy nations to reduce the debt burden on poor African nations by transforming part of it into social investments, chiefly in education and health. The draft declaration demands that any reform of the United Nations promote multilateralism and the world body’s central role, rather than the power of particular states.