Mr Chairman

Ladies and Gentlemen

Allow me, first of all, to express my country’s appreciation to the Turkish Government for the warm hospitality extended to all of us and the excellent organization of this 4th U.N. Conference on Least Developed Countries.

This Conference is taking place under difficult circumstances due to the global economic crisis, which affects, more or less, all countries and activities. Vulnerable countries, like L.D.C.’s are more affected since they already face structural and economic disabilities. In our point of view, the support of the international community to L.D.C.’s shall be directly linked to the achievement of M.D.G.’s, without abolishing the specific commitments we took for this group of developing countries.

Greece’s contribution to the attainment of the Goals is twofold. On the one hand MDG’s have become inherent principles of our bilateral development policy. On the other hand, the MDG’s help shaping and focusing the thematic areas of our development cooperation, thus increasing our aid’s concentration and its effectiveness in sectors where we have a comparative advantage. Our revised plan focuses on extreme poverty and hunger, health of mother and child and primary education. In addition have three horizontal priorities: environment and in particular climate change, good governance and democracy and gender equity.  

Beyond the target date of 2015, Greece considers climate change as, potentially, one of the most destabilizing factor for the sustainability of the MDG’s. We acknowledge that additional efforts will be needed to implement MDG’s-climate related activities, as well as policies, especially in the most vulnerable countries, like L.D.C.’s. These countries are indeed vulnerable to external threats, especially to climate change consequences. These threats have a direct impact to their economic, commercial and political substance. To this end and in cooperation with regional organizations, we finance adaptation projects in LDC’s (Least Developed Countries) and SIDS (Small Island Developing States) in Africa, Pacific and the Caribbean. In this framework, we singed, in 2008 and 2009, four Memoranda of Understanding between our country and the CARICOM, the African Union, the Indian Ocean Commission, and the World Meteorological Organization. The last one concerns specific African countries, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Sudan and Uganda. These Memoranda have a timeframe of implementation from two to four years and a total budget of 22 million euros. Part of this amount will form our contribution to the FAST START mechanism decided during the International Conference of Copenhagen, in December 2009.

Moreover, Greece, on an ad hoc basis, contributed to the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) fund with the amount of 1.000.000 euro, in 2007 and  last year to the International Organization of Francophonie, where many of its member-states are L.D.C.’s, with the amount of 500.000 euro.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The ongoing negotiations in the framework of the Doha Development Round of Trade offer a window of opportunity to increase much-needed resources allocated to agriculture and tackle issues of trade barriers, taking into account both interests and needs. Appropriately set trading systems can help agricultural societies, provided they take

particular account of the special needs of those most vulnerable. The European Union proved in practice its commitment to support L.D.C.’s in this sector, by adopting the initiative «Everything But Arms», in order to facilitate the exports of their

products to the European market. We hope that other international donors will follow.

The food prices crisis presents an ever-iminent threat. It calls for a coordinated international response of aid packages to tackle humanitarian situations and food shortages. However, beyond this short-term response, this crisis underlines the need for higher long-term investments in agricultural policies, since poverty is endemic to rural areas. There is an excellent opportunity for agricultural productivity to go green. Production systems need to become environmentally sustainable, not only those of developing counties but also of many developed ones, if they really wish to respond to current social and economic challenges.

To this end, Greece has allocated 2 million euro, through UNDP, in order to finance projects in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, North and South Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia), in the fields of food security and community development.  Through these projects in these specific fields we aim to produce concrete and direct results for local communities and citizens.

Ladies and Gentlemen

We are all fully aware that peace and development are interconnected. Conflict and insecurity undermine development, while sustainable development helps establishing conditions of peace. The supportive role of conflict prevention, peace building and peacekeeping to development could be further strengthened with a mix of policies of our developing partners.

In return, sustainable development contributes to eliminating sources of social discontent which can escalate to different levels. The peace-dividend of sustainable development, if we respond promptly to the realistic aspirations of societies, will strengthen our development cooperation efforts. We can then safely suggest that non-aid interventions can be combined with aid policies to support the MDGs process. 

Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Action Plan we will adopt at the end of this Conference, should form a realistic framework adapted to the needs and priorities of L.D.C.’s, but also to the current international political, economic and financial situation. We must highlight what we can do and not what we wish to do.

We are ready to work with everyone involved, on a multilateral or bilateral level, within the European Union and the United Nations, to this direction. We understand that much more has to be done. We accept this responsibility and we are willing to act on it.

Greece, while aligning itself with the relevant Council Conclusions of the E.U. and the Statement delivered by the  President of the European Commission, taking into consideration its budgetary constraints and having in mind that its share of O.D.A. directed to this group of countries has considerably increased since 2008, will keep L.D.C.’s in the forefront of its development cooperation policy, through targeted projects and actions.

Thank you for your attention.