Morocco has promised to provide a roadmap for the renewal and improvement of international cooperation in the interest of middle-income nations.
Wednesday’s pledge was made in New York after Morocco elected Omar Hilale, its permanent representative at the UN. Hilale is also the chair of the Group of Friends of Middle-Income Countries (MICs), and took over the chairmanship of this group from Colombia.
Hilale stated that the Kingdom would present a roadmap for international cooperation to benefit middle-income countries. This was in light the complex challenges facing the world today.
Morocco takes over the group’s presidency being determined to strengthen the added value of this group as a force of proposal and negotiation at the UN level, the Moroccan diplomat said.
Hilale outlined five priorities for the Moroccan presidency in the group’s 2023 agenda. These are to rethink international cooperation at all levels, national, regional, international, and international to support MICs. To second, to make sure that MICs are better understood through adopting methodologies that go beyond simple GDP criteria.
These methodologies, he said, should be based on the multidimensionality of MICs’ vulnerabilities and, therefore, allow for inclusive and multidimensional economic, social and environmental tools and indicators.
The ambassador states that the third priority is to mobilize predictable and long-term financial resources to support the development of MICs. This includes partnerships with multilateral financial institutions, international financial institutions, and the private sectors.
Fourth, it is about consolidating cooperation with and among middle-income countries, he said, noting that the Kingdom plans, inspired by the foresight of HM King Mohammed VI, to make the strengthening of South-South and triangular cooperation one of the pillars of the group’s action plan in several key areas, such as health, education, food security, digital technology and climate action.
Fifth, it will seek to make MICs’ interests heard and advanced in the framework of UN intergovernmental processes and events during 2023, especially the SDG Summit, the high-level event on Financing for Development, the ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum, the Climate Ambition Summit, Hilale stressed, adding that all these milestones represent key opportunities for MICs to advocate and highlight their interests and showcase tangible and positive progress on sustainable development.
For his part, the President of the UN GA expressed his congratulations to Morocco, and welcomed the kingdom’s ambitious and strategic vision for the work of this Group in 2023.
It is a transformative way for MICs as well as for their economic growth and development.
He also said that he would cooperate with Morocco in the preparation of the high level event of the General Assembly of middle-income countries, which will be held this year and will focus on the environment dimension of sustainable development.
For her part, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council, Lachezara Stoeva, expressed her full support for the Moroccan presidency and her confidence in Hilale’s leadership to coordinate the group during 2023, while stressing that she will dedicate a special session, and for the first time, to MICs during the High-Level Political Forum to be held in July.
The Group of Friends of Middle-Income Countries is an important group that positions itself within the United Nations to highlight the interests of middle-income countries, which represent 75% of the world’s population and 33% of the world’s GDP.
The group urges these countries to voice their concerns and accept the challenges they face in UN debates and other intergovernmental processes.
Source: north africa post