UN Urged To Help Landlocked Developing Countries

Laotian Minister Urges UN Members To Help Landlocked Developing Countries

New York, Sep 25 2006 7:00PM

Nations lacking access to the sea require international support in their efforts to achieve development, the Foreign Minister of Laos told the United Nations General Assembly today as it continued its annual debate.

“I appeal to the international community to further address the special problems of this vulnerable group,” said Thongloun Sisoulith, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Laos. He called specifically for global efforts to help facilitate a mid-term review to assess the Almaty Programme of Action, a plan adopted in 2003 aimed at helping to meet the special needs of landlocked developing countries.

He added that a recent summit meeting of leaders of those States had adopted a Declaration reaffirming their right of access to and from the sea.

The needs of developing countries in general were discussed by Hor Namhong, the Foreign Minister of Cambodia, who said there has been very little progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of targets for tackling poverty and other global ills. He attributed this in part to œthe negative impact of globalization which has led to the widening gap between developed countries and the poor nations.

He especially decried the lack of progress towards addressing the extreme poverty which afflicts 1.3 billion people globally. “Eradication of poverty is, first and foremost, the responsibility of the whole world and requires cooperation of the developed countries, international organizations as well as the private sector,” he said, calling for increases in debt relief, foreign direct investment and official development assistance to address the problem.

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