Ministerial Declaration
We, the
Ministers and Heads of Delegations of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
participating in the Ministerial Conference on “Aid for Trade: An Industrial
Agenda for LDCs” held in Siem Reap, Cambodia from 19 to 20 November 2008;
Mindful of the global financial crisis and
its impact on world economies and especially those of LDCs;
Being conscious of the urgency to
ascertain balanced and expeditious development and transformation of
the economies of our countries;
Recognizing that while our countries have
the primary responsibility for their own development, the
development partners can play a vital role by providing us with
timely, adequate, complementary and properly coordinated support;
Being aware that trade provides an
essential channel for integration of LDCs into the global economy
and that the building of internationally competitive productive
capacities is a key to achieve this;
Re-emphasizing the Vienna Ministerial
Declaration of LDCs made on 30 November 2007 at the conclusion of
the Ministerial Conference on “How Aid for Trade Can Transform LDCs”
hosted by United Nations Industrial Development organization (UNIDO)
and the Group of 77 and China, held in Vienna Austria from 29 to 30
November 2007;
Recognising the complementarities of the
mandates and competencies of the various development actors and
partners, which obligate their collaboration in assessing the needs,
designing appropriate support programmes, and mobilizing the
necessary resources to finance such programmes;
Appreciating the efforts undertaken by
UNIDO and WTO, together with the Secretariat of the Enhanced
Integrated Framework (EIF), pursuant to the Vienna LDCs Ministerial
Conference of 2007, to design pilot supply-side support programmes
for eight LDCs in collaboration with the concerned countries, ITC
and UNCTAD, as were presented and discussed at the Kigali Workshop
in September 2008;
Appreciating also the efforts undertaken
by the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) to identify
priority areas for future Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) capacity
building in eight pilot LDCs and commending the WTO and UNIDO on
their signature of a framework agreement covering UNIDO co-operation
with the STDF;
Commending UNIDO and the WTO for their
cooperation and efforts, in cooperation with the Government of
Cambodia, that resulted into a successful co-organisation of this
LDCs Ministerial Conference;
Underlining the importance of bilateral
and multilateral donors providing predictable and sustainable
financial and other resources to support the supply capacity
building initiatives in LDCs;
Stressing our recognition of the role that
can be played by AfT in building the essential supply-side capacity
and expedite socio-economically beneficial integration of our
countries into the global economy
Welcoming the fact that the EIF is now
functional, and being conscious of the potential it holds as one of
the mechanisms for the operationalisation of AfT;
Being aware that monitoring and evaluation are important elements of
the AfT and EIF processes;
We the Ministers and Heads of Delegations now herewith declare
the following:
1. We reiterate the resolve of our countries to take the lead in
designing the relevant transformation programmes, and to seek
collaboration from our development partners in realizing such
programmes;
2. We call upon all our development
partners to appreciate the need for industrial supply-side
capacities as enabling factors that will make our economies benefit
more from the existing opportunities provided by the international
trading system and those that will result from future arrangements;
and strongly urge them to continue assisting us to use trade as an
instrument for development and poverty reduction;
3. We emphasize our determination to
nurture strategic and practical partnership with our development
partners, in order to sustain our cooperation and improve the impact
of that cooperation in effectively pursuing the opportunities that
the AfT and EIF provide;
4. We strongly urge our development
partners to implement all internationally agreed measures in favour
of LDCs, and to adopt new ones, to enable our economies to benefit
more from the existing opportunities provided by the international
trading system and those that will result from a successful
conclusion of the Doha Round. In this context, we stress that AfT
must be a complement to, and not a substitute for the results of the
DDA.
5. We call for a speedy conclusion of the
Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations, which will open up new
market access opportunities, in particular for the LDCs, and which
will contribute to the beneficial integration of our countries into
the multilateral trading system. In this respect we stress the
importance of coming to an agreement on the agricultural and
non-agricultural market access modalities by the end of the year, so
that the DDA can be concluded by 2009.
6. Considering the mandates and
competencies of the UN agencies involved in capacity building in
LDCs, the EIF, and the trade and productive capacity cluster, we
call for the continuation of active inter-agency dialogue, and in
this context, for the agencies involved to work closely with the EIF,
as a way for furthering the enhancement of aid coherence.
7. Cognizant of the need to have a
suitable blending of nationally- and regionally targeted measures,
in order to improve the impact of support to our countries, we call
upon all national and regional actors involved in the EIF process
and the broader AfT initiative to identify feasible support measures
at various levels; and also to ascertain a broad-based participation
of development partners;
8. Considering its role as an industrial
development organization, we encourage UNIDO to enhance and expand
its efforts towards industrial productive capacity of our countries
by participating in designing and implementing specific and well
targeted projects in cooperation with ITC and UNCTAD as well as
other partners;.
9. In view of the increasing importance of
South-South economic interactions through investment flows, trade,
and technological innovations and transfers, we urge UNIDO to use
the opportunities provided by AfT and EIF to further develop and
expand its concept of South-South industrial cooperation.
10. In view of the urgency and magnitude
of the needs of our countries, we urge the EIF secretariat to devise
viable strategies for the speedy mobilization of additional
resources as well as for an expeditious disbursement of the
available funds, and thereby ensure smooth implementation of
programmes.
11. In order to ascertain reliable funding
of its trade and productive capacity building activities in our
countries, we urge UNIDO to pursue further the mobilization of
additional funds that will be used to finance the relevant support
programmes in LDCs, and urge donors to contribute generously.
12. Cognizant of the need to further
elucidate the requirements of our countries, we call upon our
development partners to assist our countries in the completion of
the AfT partner questionnaires, which will help the LDCs contribute
to the 2nd Global AfT Review in June 2009 by providing their
assessment of the progress made in the identification of trade
priorities, in the articulation of these priorities in their
development plans, and the effectiveness of responses by their
development partners
The Ministers and Heads of Delegations of the LDCs are deeply
grateful to the Royal Government of Cambodia for hosting the
Ministerial Conference. The Ministers and Heads of Delegations also
thank all those who, through their participation or input, have
contributed to the success of this process.
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