Statement by H.E. Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Hon'ble Foreign Adviser of Bangladesh at the Ministerial Meeting of LDC Delegations
Accra, Ghana, 19 April 2008

Your Excellencies,
Ministers
Mr. Secretary General
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen

- It is an enormous privilege for me to welcome you all to this LDC Ministerial in Accra and significantly in Africa. UNCTAD XII has provided us the opportunity, and occasion, to be here gathered. For decades UNCTAD, as the focal point for LDCs in the UN system, has been rendering the developing world, including LDCs, a yeoman's service. We are deeply beholden, therefore. This they have done an integrated treatment of relevant subjects, and its famous three pillars. And as the most vulnerable group among the world community of nations, the LDCs will keep looking for support to UNCTAD. Today, we have an agenda before us. If there be no objection, the agenda is adopted.

- To UNCTAD, as well as to its leadership, at whose apex is its Secretary General Dr. Supachai Panitchpatdi. He is doubtless a person of prodigious parts, whose keen intellect for years has focused on issues of development. In his previous avatar as Director General WTO and also in his present capacity he has championed LDC causes for which we owe him a deep debt of gratitude. And so, it is with great pleasure, Sir, that I give you the floor.

- Thank you Dr. Supachai for you kind words and your worm remarks with regard to me. And thank you for your skilful stewardship to date. I recall in Geneva last July, during a "four eyes tête a tête" with you, we had discussed the issue of strengthening the LDC Division in the Secretariat with adequate manpower. I am pleased, you are pursuing this objective. I would also encourage you in your on-going efforts to contact partners with regard to expanding the Trust Fund.

- Now we come to the most important part of the agenda: the consideration of the Ministerial Declaration. Many have contributed to it and I thank them all. Indeed I believe, Dear Ministers, that our Ambassadors have done us proud. But before we begin let me just say that I was advised the final version was crafted to take for it to be translated into French. But I am also advised the final amendments were mostly editorial suggestions. So I hope our Francophone colleagues will bear with us on the issue.

- Can we go over para by para, quickly, and could I urge that interventions be brief, precise and to the point.

- So now we have the LDC Ministerial Declaration of Accra, the full and complete version, before us. This will, must, surely feed into the G-77 Ministerial Declaration tomorrow, and then the outcome of UNCTAD XII. We are all pleased that this event takes place in Africa. While the end of the colonial era, has brought freedom to Africa, in many way's Africa's development aspirations remain unfulfilled. Today the soul of Africa cries out that this be met and we must respond to that cry.

- Could I touch upon yet another point before I wrap up, it is the spiraling food prices. The causes are legion: rapid increases in consumption demand, extreme weather conditions, sky-rocketing energy costs, diversion of cereals to bio-fuels, systematic market failure and speculative behaviour.

- Whatever these many be, a hungry stomach and development cannot coexist. The issue is no larger purely agricultural, or even economic. We believe the time has come for the involvement of the highest global forum and its Chief Executive: that is of the UN and its Secretary General. I would propose that the Secretary General of the UN set up a Task Force immediately of Eminent Persons, Policy Maker and Exports with himself at the helm, for the magnitude of the problem demands nothing less. The Task Force could address market failures and propose improved coordination between cereal importing and exporting countries. Its key TORs could be to stabilize food prices, and also address long-term food scurry issues. It could submit a report in the next three months. The Secretary General could consider convening an international conference this fall to deliberate on the Report.

- I have earlier touched on some of the sorrows of Africa. Despite the vicissitudes of nature, we in Bangladesh have succeeded in more or less outpacing our huge population growth generally with agricultural productivity. Despite some occasional shortfalls, this has been nothing short of a miracle Micro-credit and other policy information has helped in this. It the sprit of South-South Cooperation, Bangladesh is willing to share her Green Revolution experiences with fellow LDCs, especially in Africa. For today we live in a world where the hunger pangs of some must cause pain to all. This is what sets our age distinct from others before.