Mr. Chairman,

I would like to speak in capacity of the Chair of the 134 members of the Group of 77 and China.

I express my sincere appreciation to you and the members of the Bureau as well as the Secretariat for the unwavering efforts in steering and guiding the work of the Second Committee in an effective and smooth manner as much as possible. Your able guidance has led us to conclude our substantive work today. I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate all delegations.

Mr. Chairman,

As we are about to conclude our work at the critical first year of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other agreed outcome documents and agreements, allow me to share some observations and reflections as we move forward with the work of this Committee:

First, despite the Group submitted all of the Group's draft proposals, except one, before the deadline, and the "open line communications" which the Group's coordinators had reached out to Development Partners way before the negotiations begun, the work of the Second Committee could not be concluded in time or by the respective deadline set by the Bureau.

As the Chair of the Group of 77 and China, Thailand is of the view that the Decision 65/530 is still relevant to the work of the Second Committee and its provisions respond to the context of the Committee. However, amendments to the Decision with the aim to enhance efficiency of the working methods of the Second Committee and to strengthen interactions between Member States and Bureau members could be made.

Second, Thailand is of a concern that the special context of the Second Committee where consensual adoption of resolutions has been our tradition and has played a central and positive role in this Committee's practice has not been respected and in decline. Breaking of silence procedure occurred in several occasions. Furthermore, the resolution in agenda item 19 (a) on Implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and of the United Nations Conference in Sustainable Development was called for a vote, mainly for the periodicity issue.

Third, in many occasions during this session, the Programme budget implications have been requested and raised as a pre-condition of adoption of resolutions. This important issue is under the exclusive purview of the Fifth Committee and in some occasions, discussing financial issues delayed the negotiations and adoption of draft resolutions. The Group further caution on a proliferated language proposal of "within existing resources" in the negotiation. We would like to stress that the role of the Fifth Committee in budgetary and administrative matters should be respected. The Group, therefore, deems it necessary to remind all Main Committees of the General Assembly to desist from using the phrase "within existing resources" in their resolutions, as to do so would be in contradiction of rule 153 of the rules of procedure, as well as numerous General Assembly resolutions that have reaffirmed the role of the Fifth Committee.

Forth, updating and rationalizing the Second Committee agenda in line with the new sustainable development framework should not necessarily lead to the elimination or changing the periodicity of agenda items. It is up to the Member States to determine the priorities of the agenda of the Second Committee according to their development needs, interest and level of development. Building on new sustainable development framework, emerging and relevant issues could arise as new items for the agenda of the Second Committee. These could include cross-cutting issues in the SDGs such as infrastructure, water, energy, industrialization, investment, sustainable consumption and production, among others.

Fifth, reporting is one of the main aspects of the work of the Second Committee that strengthens informed decision making of and consensus building among Member States. As such, the reports should be maintained as they currently are. Streamlining reporting will not allow meaningful and substantive discussion of the issues and topics at hand.

Mr. Chairman,

These are Thailand's reflections of the work of the Second Committee in the past months which we hope that the work of the Second Committee in remaining months and next sessions will be most beneficial for all in order to maintain this momentum in a more focused and informed landscape to realize a relevant, meaningful, efficient and effective Second Committee. We encourage delegations to work together harder with not only an open mind, but also a mindset to "give consensus a chance".

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.