UNITED NATIONS: RICUPERO TAKES OVER HELM AT UNCTAD

3:01 PM Sep 15, 1995

UNITED NATIONS: RICUPERO TAKES OVER HELM AT UNCTAD
Geneva 15 Sep (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- Mr. Rubens Ricupero of Brazil, who has held key diplomatic posts over a 30-year period and went on to hold Ministerial posts as Environment Minister and then Finance Minister, took over Friday the post of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali proposed Ricupero's name to head UNCTAD on 10 August and the appointment for a four-year term was confirmed by the 49th session of the UN General Assembly in New York Thursday.

The Assembly also agreed to the Ninth Session of the UNCTAD being held in South Africa from 26 April to 11 May 1996.

Ricupero's nomination came after Boutros-Ghali had sounded out and spoken on the telephone to Ricupero at Rome, where he was Brazil's ambassador to Italy. While many names had been mentioned as among those being considered by Boutros-Ghali for the UNCTAD post, Ricupero's name had not figured. After sounding out his availability, Boutros-Ghali spoke over the phone to Ricupero in Rome (where he was Brazil's ambassador to Italy) and apparently offered him the post.

The new UNCTAD head is expected to go to New York over the weekend to meet the UN Secretary-General.

Speaking at the General Assembly, after the unanimous confirmation of the appointment, the Chairman of the Group of 77, Amb. Felipe Mabilingan of the Philippines, warmly welcomed the appointment and paid a "special tribute" to Boutros-Ghali for ending the "more than a year and half of waiting for the new Secretary-General of UNCTAD".

Mabilingan expressed the hope that the UN Secretary-General would provide Ricupero "with full support" to enable him to carry out his task.

"The developing countries," Mabilingan told the Assembly, "attach particular importance to the work of UNCTAD as a development-oriented body of the UN System. UNCTAD has played a central role in providing the General Assembly with substantive inputs needed to undertake analytical and policy-oriented work in the field of development. The developing countries are ever more convinced that UNCTAD must be strengthened so that it can exercise fully its development mandate. Particularly, in the light of the globalization of the international economy and deepening of economic inter-dependence among States.

"UNCTAD has attained greater relevance as a result of the creation of the World Trade Organization, which has reinforced the need for policy-oriented trade forum or institution with a strong developmental perspective."

Referring to the meeting of UNCTAD-IX (scheduled to be held in South Africa from 26 April to 11 May), The G77 chair said: "UNCTAD-IX should usher in an invigorated UNCTAD as a forum for providing important inputs and directions for development. The appointment of Mr. Ricupero as the new Secretary-General of UNCTAD augurs well for the success of that very important gathering of member-countries."