(Check against delivery)

Statement by Ms Nobuko Iwatani
First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations

On agenda item 137: Pattern of Conferences
Main Part of the Seventy-first

Session United Nations General

Assembly
28 October 2016

 

 

Thank you, Mme. Chairwoman,

 

          I wish to thank Ms. Aba Ayebi-Arthur, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Conferences, Ms. Catherine Pollard, Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, and Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), for introducing their respective reports on this agenda item. I also wish to congratulate, through Mme Vice-Chair, H.E. Mrs. Katalin Annamaria Bogyay, Chairwoman of the Committee on Conferences, for her strong leadership which guided us to the successful conclusion of the work of the Committee.

 

 

Mme. Chairwoman,

 

          My delegation reiterates that maintaining an appropriate quality of conference services at the United Nations is essential for proper decision making by the Member States. At the same time, those services should be provided in the most efficient and effective manner possible. In this regard, my delegation welcomes that the DGACM has taken measures to increase the utilization rates of conference services resources and facilities, and to ensure timely issuance of documents in 6 official languages, in order to further improve the quality of conference services.

 

          In this connection, I would like to refer to the paragraph 29 of the GA resolution 70/247 which requested the Secretary-General to transmit reports to the ACABQ no later than two weeks in advance of its scheduled consideration of the items so as to ensure that the ACABQ will, in turn, provide its advice to the General Assembly no later than two weeks in advance of the formal introduction of an item, with an exception for revised estimates and programme budget implications arising in the course of the main part of the session of the Assembly. We observe that the DGACM is making efforts to issue and distribute the ACABQ reports in the 6 official languages once they have been submitted to the Department, but I would appreciate the assessment by the DGACM, as well as by the ACABQ, of the current arrangement regarding the implementation of this paragraph.

 

          The Committee on Conferences (CoC) held fruitful discussions on those matters in September, in which my delegation engaged constructively. The draft resolution submitted by the CoC based on its extensive consultation will serve as a good basis for discussion in the Fifth Committee, and my delegation looks forward to discussion informal consultations on this agenda item with the view to conclude our consideration in a timely manner.

 

 

I thank you Mme. Chairwoman.