(As delivered)

 

Statement by Mr. Shigetoshi Nagao
Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations

 

Agenda item 132: Program Budget 2014-2015: Capital Master Plan

 

Main Part of the Sixty-Ninth Session,
Fifth Committee of the General Assembly
10 November 2014

 

 

Madam Chair,

 

            At the outset, I would like to thank Mr. Yukio Takasu, Under-Secretary-General for Department of Management; Mr. Steven Townley, Chair of the Audit Operations Committee of the Board of Auditors; and Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), for introducing their respective reports on the Capital Master Plan (CMP).

 

            First of all, my delegation welcomes the successful completion of the renovation of the General Assembly Hall in time for the beginning of the GA's 69th session. Japan also commends Mr. Takasu as well as Mr. Michael Adlerstein, Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Capital Master Plan and his team for their tireless work. My delegation is happy to note the Secretary-General's statement that the cost of all the post-renovation construction and close-out activities will be met from within the existing approved resources of the CMP project.

 

            The major focus of this main session will be the issue of financing the cumulative associated costs and the cost of the secondary data center, for which the General Assembly decided in March of this year to authorize the Secretary-General to make use of the Working Capital Fund and the Special Account as a cash bridging mechanism. We have to be creative in making a decision on our final appropriations, including that of the aforementioned costs, while closely monitoring the changes in the cash balance as a result of making use of the cash bridging mechanism.

 

            Finally, Madam Chair, my delegation is looking forward to discussing this important agenda item under your able guidance.

 

I thank you.